Caracterización y evaluación del potencial energético de los residuos forestales de las industrias de papel y celulosa

Abstract

The pulp and paper industry is the major consumer of biomass fuels and feedstock, as a result it generates biomass waste, which represents a great amount of heat energy available. The production of pulp and paper requires large quantities of mechanical and heat energy. This energy is usually supplied by burning biomass in boilers, generating steam that is used as heat source and to generate electricity. Besides the waste generated in the industry, the paper and pulp production chain involves an important forestry activity, in which generally the wood is taken and the biomass residues are leaved at the forest. That represents between 15 and 25% of the tree dry mass. This research focuses on the solid residues generated at the forest (bark, branches, tips and leaves) as well as in the production of pulp and paper (fines, bark, organic sludge and chips), characterizing them as fuel. The objective is also estimate the electric potential of the combustion of biomass residues through the steam Rankine cycle. The characterization is based on a range of analysis, studding the thermal degradation (thermal analysis - TG and DSC), and determining the elemental and immediate composition, heating value, density and chemical structure. Also, the ash elemental composition is established. The material used is taken from an hybrid of Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus grandis. The studied biomass is suitable to be used as fuel in industrial furnaces. The forestry residues and factory wood rejects have some disadvantages regarding to others biomass like wood. The main disadvantages are the ash content, especially in the leaves and bark (between 3 and 5% d.b.), high moisture (above 50% w.b.) and its handling difficult. However, the chemistry properties of the biomass improve as it remains at the forest for a period of time, decreasing its moisture and reducing the ash, chlorine and potassium contents. The organic sludge combustion could be energy deficient due to its high moisture and its low heating value. The electric potential is high, since the productivity of waste is large and its heating value is similar to the original wood. We conclude that without considering the logistics issues, the biomass waste has great energy po- tential, generally untapped.