Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-01358-4

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Prediction of higher heating value of biochars using proximate

analysis by artificial neural network
Gülce Çakman 1 & Saba Gheni 2 & Selim Ceylan 1

Received: 26 November 2020 / Revised: 1 February 2021 / Accepted: 2 February 2021

# The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature 2021

Abstract
The biochars obtained from the pyrolysis of biomass at different conditions have the potential to be used as biofuels. Thus, as a
critical fuel property, the higher heating value (HHV) of biochars must be determined to decide on their application area. However,
oxygen bomb calorimeters that are employed for HHV determination are expensive. Also, analysis is time-consuming, needs
specialists, and can suffer from experimental errors. Although some model equations are available for solid fuels (biomass, coal,
etc.) to calculate HHV, biochar has different properties, and a new model is required. This study aims to form an artificial neural
network (ANN) model in order to estimate HHV of biochars by using simple proximate analysis data of 129 different biochars. The
experimental and the predicted model results showed good agreement that the ANN model presented the highest regression
coefficient of 0.9651 and the lowest mean absolute deviation of 0.5569 among all models previously reported in the literature.

Keywords Biochar . Prediction . Higher heating value (HHV) . Artificial neural network (ANN)

1 Introduction
The enormous consumption of traditional fossil fuels; emis-
sions of toxic and harmful pollutants such as CO2, NOx, SO2,
and chlorides; and increased energy requirement motivated
researchers to study and improve different energy sources [1,
2]. Biomass energy can help reduce fossil fuel consumption by
decreasing environmental and energy problems. Therefore,
biomass is considered as a potentially sustainable alternative
to fossil fuels. Currently, biomass provides 14% of the world’s
total energy needs [3]. Biochar is the solid product obtained
from the pyrolysis of biomass [4]. Due to the high carbon
content of biochar, it can be used in many areas such as solid
fuel [5], adsorbent materials [6–8], and pollution control [9].
For these reasons, many studies have focused on biochar pro-
duction from biomass [10–12]. The biochar obtained as a result
of pyrolysis has an energy content in the range of 14–30 MJ
* Selim Ceylan
selim.ceylan@omu.edu.tr
1
Faculty of Engineering, Chemical Engineering Department,
Ondokuz Mayıs University, Kurupelit, 55139 Samsun, Turkey
2
Faculty of Engineering, Chemical Engineering Department, Tikrit
University, Tikrit 34001, Iraq
kg−1 indicates that there is a high potential for energy applica-
tions [13]. The characterization of biochar is essential to deter-
mine the properties. One of the most important properties of
the biochar, which is planned to be used as fuel, is the higher
heating value (HHV). An oxygen bomb calorimeter is the most
common method used to measure HHV [14–16]. Though this
method is reliable, it is not an accessible approach due to con-
sumable cost and time consumption. As an alternative to this
method, many researchers have developed equations to predict
HHV values using proximate and ultimate analysis [17–19]. In
the study of Cordero et al., a linear equation was developed for
estimating HHV of lignocellulosics and chars by using proxi-
mate analysis data [17]. In another study, Hosseinpour et al.
worked on HHV prediction of biomass from proximate analy-
sis using the iterative neural network-adapted partial least
squares approach. This model successfully predicted the
HHV of biomass fuels with R2 > 0.95, MSE < 0.62 and
MAPE < 3% as a function of proximate analyzes [18]. Yin
developed two new empirical correlations based on the ulti-
mate and proximate analyses of biomass for predicting HHV.
The correlation based on the ultimate analysis has a mean
absolute error (MAE) of less than 5% and marginal mean bias
error (MBE) at only 0.57%, while the other correlation based
on proximate analysis is a useful complement with low abso-
lute MBE (0.67%) [19]. While ultimate analysis requires

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