3 Solid Fuels

3.I INTRODUCTION

tcalid materials
that are used as a fuel to
produce energy combustion with oxygenor
aen-enriched air are known as solid fuels) Both natural byand processed fuels are widely
Ned in domestic and industrial appliances. Wood, peat, lignite or brown coal,
and anthracite are important natural solid fuels. Charcoal, soft coke, hard cokebituminous coal
and carbonised
lienite briquettes are solid fuels derived from natural varieties. Other examples of widely used
salid fuels are animal dung and agricultural and industrial wastes such as straw, husk, coconut
shells, bagasse and sawdust.

3.2 BIOMASS

Atmosphericcarbon dioxide is fixed in the formof biomass-the primary productof photosynthesis

in the terrestrial and aquatic regions of the earth. The secondary
products are human, animal
and industrial organic wastes and residues. Both the primary and secondary products constitute
the renewable resources of energy used by human beings around the globe. In prehistoric times
biomass was perhaps the only source of useful energy: currently it provides11%ofthe world's
primary energy. The bionmass energy potential is ten times the world's annual energy need.
Morethan half of the energy consumption in India issupported by biomass.

3.2.1 WooD AND CHARcOAL

ood has been used as a fuel from ancienttimes. It is now used extensively in countries where
there are extensiveforests, and where other fueis are noi cheap or readily available.
TEShly cutwoodcontains259%-50% water. It is normallyusedinanair-driedcondition with
5 % moisture content. Ash contentis about 0.6% or less. The combustible part ofwood
mostly madeup of cellulose and lignin, which are organiccompounds of carbon, hydrogen
Nd Oxygen. Resins and waxes are also present. The average composition and calorific value
y woOd are given in Table 3.1. The chemical constitution of dry wood is fairly constant
from different sources.
Athough ash content is low, the oxygen content of wood is veryhigh. This makes even dry
0Od a fuel of low calorific value.However, itsease ofignition, free burning quality and easy
Osposal of ash are the points in its favour.
 Fuels and Combustion
48

properties of h a r d w o o d s
Average composition and
a b l e 3.1
cent air-dried 45-55
composition, per
Group-wise
25-35
Cellulose 4-6
Lignin 0.5-2
Hemicelluloses
10-15
Fats, waxes and resins
Water per cent dry basis
Ultimate analysis and
other properties, 50
Carbon 43.5
Hydrogen 0.5
Oxygen 650
Ash
Density, kg/m' 4,600
Calorific value, kcal/kg

and gasification
processes. Charcoal
carbonisation
a r a w material
for the producer gas is
and the
Wood can be used distillation),
as
called destructive
of carbonisation (so from the incomplete burning
is the solid product also results
wood. Charcoal
gaseous productof the gasification of
of wood. temperature regimes.
of wood is
characterised by several
The carbonisation
between 100°C and 170°C.
evaporates
I. All loosely bound water
monoxide, carbon dioxide and
condensable vapours evolve

2. Gases containing carbon

and 270°C.
between 170'C be detected by the
spontaneous

starts at 270-280°C, which can

3. An exothermic step temperature.
and the increase in
generation of heat condensable vapours form.
but more of the
oxides of carbon ceases,
The evolution of the continues to rise slowly
until it reaches
sOurce of heat,
the température external
Without any outside is achieved by supplying
450°C: A final temperature
in
of 600°C practice
400°C to

heat.
carbonisation of wood. On cooling the gases and
Charcoal is the solidproduct left after the The upper
non-condensable gas (wood gas) and theliquids settleintotwolayvers. the
vapours give a and lower
is pyroligneous acid, which is an aqueous solution of many chemicals,
layer be considered
Except for its use as a supplementary plant fuel, wood gas may
layeris wood tar. in various grades of purity, are recovered
from the
a waste. Acetic acid, methanol and acetone,
acid, wood
acetic acid and water are recovered from the pyroligneous
pyroligneous acid. After Before the advent or

spirit is obtained. This is further processed for the recovery of methano).

of methanol. Wood tar is often used asa
synthetic processes, wood spirit was the only source
chemicals.
supplementary plant fuel. It is however a potential source of many to get
carbonisation, selection is necessary
ATthough any wood gives charcoal on some

a quality product. Dense charcoal is obtained from thespecies of mature dense wood win
narrow annular rings. while rotten and old wood yields a light product.
Wood carbonisation
 Solid Fuels 49

may be practised in open pits. kilns or metal retorts, The primitive open pit method is now
practically obsolete: it accounts for a small fraction of the total production. No product other
than charcoal is recovered. The yield of charcoal is lowabout 15% on dry basis and it is of
inferior quality.
In most kilns charcoal is the only product. but its yield and quality vary. There are many
designs of charcoal kilns in vogue in India and elsewhere. Paraboloidal mud-walled kilns
are more common in lndia. No by-products are recovered. A kiln ofthis design isbuiltin a
paroboloidal shape of radius 2.5-3 m. height 25 m and capacity 25-35 m? of stocked wood
Billets of wood are stacked on the ground in such a way that a paraboloid results with the
apexat the top (Fig. 3.1). Two interconnecting passages are left in the stack-a vertical central
passage acting as the chimney and a horizontal passage at the bottom for introducing fire to the
centre. The kiln is covered first with a thick layer of grass, leaves and turf and then plastered
with earth or a mixture of earh and charcoal dust. The initial firing is done with grass and
. Later the wood billets are partly bumed to supply heat for the process. Thetimetaken
for carbonisation is about 7 to 10 days. The fire is extinguished with water and the kiln is
allowedtocool for a week or more before the charcoal is taken out.
Pits and kilns are locatedin the forests. Retortsare however usedinfactories. The yield of
charcoal in retorts is much higher and the by-products can also be recovered. Some typical
yields of by-products of wood carbonisation in industrial retorts are given in Table 3.2.

Soil
-Wood logs
-Leaves

Figure 3. Paraboloidal charcoal kiln

Table 3.2 Products of wood carbonisation

Yields, per cent air-dried

Products
Charcoal 25-30
Pyroligneous acid
acetic acid 8&-12
wood spirit (crude) 10-20
10-20
water
Wood tar 8-10
Wood gas 20-23
 Fuels and Combustion
50
There are four types of charcoal retorts.
Extenally fired batch retorts,
continuous vertical retorts,
Externally fired retorts,
batch vertical
3Internally heated
continuous vertical retorts.
4 Internally heated inert
heated
and use forced recirculation of gases
of recent design, and lend themselves to effc
Internallyhcated retorts are thermal efficiency
icient
carbonisation, have high
given off during the wood and
charcoal.
mechanical handling of It easily 1gnites,
and
burns at low rates. F
fairly pure carbon.charcoal
Wood charcoal is a source of wood
in heating ovens,
is a good but costly fuel. Itused
to
clean and smooth burning Coke has now replaced
and reducing agent
in metallurgical processes.
be a very important fuel technical reasons. Charcoal has
however retained its
to cost and other metal worker
it in most cases owing
cases. It is extensively used as
a fuel in blacksmiths and also use charcoal
use in some special industries. Gasification plants may Coal
n u m e r o u s other cottage
forges, and in road vehicles using producer gas obtained
the Second world war,
as the fuel material, During India. In the post Second world
used in many countries, including
from wood charcoal were
excellent properties of charcoal
industrialised countries rediscóvered the
war period, people in charcoal industry. With suitable
economic factor in the
for barbequing. This is now major
a
absorbent in gas purification, solvent recovery
treatment wood charcoal
is widely used as an
and liquid purification. It has high surface area
a of 150-450 mg It remains the preferred
material for the manufacture of carbon disulphide.
carbonisation of other forms of biomass, for example,
Charcoal is also obtained by the
and reduced to small fragments).
sawdust, nutshells, sugarcane bagasse (crushed, chopped of
bark, twigs and coconut shells. Thecarbonisation ofsmall particles is very fast and this
type
charcoaling is also referred to as the rapid pyrolysis process. The small-scale
rapid pyrolysis
countries. Almost
technology has particular importanceTor the Charcoal-maker developing
in
solid
all rapid pyrolysis plants can be des1gned for the generation of three products, namely,
char is obtained as a coarse or fine
charcoal, pyrolysis oil and converter gas. The biomass
most applications. There is one
powder and has to be agglomerated or cast into briquettes for with a
in
charcoal blast furnace at Mysore Iron and Steel Limited (MISL) at Bhadravati India
The charcoal consumption is one tonne per
capacity of 25,000 tonnes of pig iron per annum.
tonne of pig iron. The supply of charcoal is now mostly met from the kilns of the neighbournng
forests. The ferroalloy plant of MISL also uses charcoal as fuel. Some 2 billion people in the
world use firewood and charcoalfor cookingand heating
3.2.2 WooD WASTESs
Small-sized wood wastes, particularly sawdust and wood shavings, find use as fuel. These
can be sucessfully burnt along with coal and coke. Fuel briquettes can be made by binding
the wastes with an inflammable material like pitch. Wood wastes can also be converted into
charcoal and producer gas.
 Solid Fuels S1
3.2.3 BAGASSE
The fibrous material lelt aller the
crushing and extraction of juice from sugar cane is known
as hagasse. One of the
chicl uses of this material is as fuel in
condition it contains 45%-50% moisture and 1% ash. and has a sugar factories. In its air-dried
u has been estimated that calorific value of I,500 kcal/kg.
one tonne of bagasse at 49% moisture burns with 100% excess air
to give the same heal as
1601 of furnace oil. On storing for some months,
fermentation and dries to about 15% bagasse undergoes
Tawair-dried bagasse. It has a higher moisture.
The fermented
variety is a better fuel than
the
calorific value, 3,800 kcal/kg, ignites easily and has free
burning quality. India produces 60 million tonnes of raw bagasse
70%-75% is burnt as fuelL a small annually, out of which about
is surpluS
quantity iS sold for pulp and paper making, and about 20%
3.2.4 DRY LEAVES AND TwIGs
These are collected from the forests and elsewhere and meet
the fuel requirement of the
in India to a great extent. The moisture, ash and calorific poor
value of some non-fossil solid fuels
are given in Table 3.3.
During the Second world war, when petroleum supplies were
scarce, Brazil burned coffee
and Argentina burned wheat and corn as fuel.
Power alcohol from farm wastes may be economical in those
countries where sugar crops
are easily raised and the cost of imported petroleum is high.
3.2.5. OTHER AGRIcULTURAL WASTES
Besides bagasse, a number of other agricultural wastes also find use as fuel. The total availability
of these in India per year is: rice straw 100 million tonnes, wheat straw 50
million tonnes, maize
Table 3.3 Properties of some non-fossil domestic fuels, air-dried
Fuel Moisture, Ash, Calorific
per cent per cent value, kcal/kg
Casuarina leaves 8.4 1.3 4400
Coconut shell 9.3 0.2 4270
Cow dung 8.5 21.7 3290
Cow dung cake 4.3 33.2 3140
Date palm leaves 10.5 4.4 4070
Groundnut shells 12.1 1.3 4200
Mango leaves 9.8 18.0 3390
Palmyra leaves 9.4 1.3 4200
Rice husk 11.6 19.5 3440
Sal wood 10.4 0.3 4480
Sawdust from sal wood 9.8 1.5 4460
 52 Fuels and Combustioon

tonnes, cotton stalk 24 million

tonnes, and jule stick 2.5 million tona
nnes
straw and cob 20 million
stick is mainly
used as a very pleasant.and
free-burning fuel.
usedRice and fuel. The jute
husks are higher in ash (>10%) than the above
as cattle fecd material. It is used:
that
The straws are n
as fuels.It is estimated
also employed
shells and fibres are
available in India.
Ovens and furnaces. Coconut forest residues
are

250 n++llion tonnes of agricultural and

hore than

3.2.6 CATTLE DUNG

100 million tonnes ofdrydo.
used asfuel in India. Morethan
Unfortunately, cattle dung widely
is
It is equivalentto more than
40 million tonnas
as domestic fuel. or rice husks and sun
cattle dung are burnt every year
made into briquettes with straw, leaves, twigs
is is in the production ot
of coal. Raw cattle dung The more rational
use of cattle dung
dried before being used as fuel. fuels are not available in abundancee,
m a n u r e . So long
as alternative cheap
biogas and by product continue, especially in villages and small
towns.
will
the misuse of cattle dung

3.3 PEAT
of partly decompOsed plant has material that
Peat is naturally-occurring solid fuel consisting
a but measurable rates,
conditions. Peat bogs grow at slow,
accumulated in situ under marshy It is
In general, peat accumulates in an swamp at the rate of about 3 m in 2,500 years.
active
amount of solid matter in peat bogs is
associated wth verylarge content of water. In fact, the
the deposit, peat is light brown in colour and highly fibrous
10%, or less. Near the surface of
the colour becomes darker and finally black, when
in nature. With an increase in the depth,
obvious. A part of the water content of freshly won
the vegetable origin and structure is not so
is removed by drying in air. The air-drying
peat can be drained off while a much larger part

operationmay require 40-50days.

conversion of vegetable matter
Peat is not regarded as coal; it represents the first stage in the
bituminous coal and anthracite. All these fuels
into coal. The other major stages are lignite,
together constitute the humites. Large deposits peat found in Russia, Germany,
of are Poland,
Scotland. Russia has 60%
Finland, the USA, Sweden, Norway, Ireland,Canada,Indonesia and
of the world's total reserves of peat. In the Republic of Ireland, peat is the principal fuel. The
in southem
only significant deposit of true peat in India is in the swamps of the Nilgiri hills
India at an elevation of 2,000 m. Peat-like material also occurs at depths of 5-10 m on the
two

sides of the Hooghly river in and around Kolkata.

the
The composition and properties of peat vary widely from place to place, depending on
nature of the original plant material and the agencies and extent of decay. Raw peat consIsIs
ofdecayed plant material and peat humus, The content of montan wax may varyfrom 0
129%. The average properties of peat are shown in Table 3.4. The lowerlayers of peatusuall
have a higher ash content than the upper layers..
Peat is an important fuel in those countries having large deposits of peat. It is extracted by an
old well-established method of hand-cuting and also by the mechanised excavation metnou.