Assessment of Agglomeration Properties of Biomass—Preliminary Study

The paper presents results of preliminary tests of selected biomass types on the basis of which it is possible to assess their agglomeration properties. The research material was the biomass commonly used as a raw material for the production of compacted solid biofuels. Used raw materials was widely considered as: easy to a pressure agglomeration (softwood—pine), difficult, straw kind raw material (miscanthus), and relatively little studied, in the context of the pressure agglomeration, raw material (cup plant). Has been developed and presented a course of action which allows in a parametric manner to classify a different kind of biomass in terms of its agglomeration potential. The presented method allows to assign the tested type of biomass to the proposed groups. This should give information which of the tested types of biomass has best features of the material promoting compaction and which of them has the characteristics of the material which made it hard to agglomerate. The developed method allows to assess the pro-agglomeration potential of a given type of biomass, omitting in this assessment the impact of moisture content and the degree of fragmentation of the raw material. It allows to parametrically indicate whether a given biomass can be used in the compacted solid biofuels production process as a binder, basic material or difficult material requiring the addition of a binder.