Abstract
Chemical composition, moisture content, bulk and particle densities, and geometric mean particle size were determined to characterize grinds from wheat and barley straws, corn stover and switchgrass. The biomass grinds were compressed for five levels of compressive forces (1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 4400 N) and three levels of particle sizes (3.2, 1.6 and 0.8 mm) at two levels of moisture contents (12% and 15% (wb) to establish the compression and relaxation data. Corn stover grind produced the highest compact density at low pressure during compression. Compressive force, particle size and moisture content of grinds significantly affected the compact density of barley straw, corn stover and switchgrass grinds. However, different particle sizes of wheat straw grind did not produce any significant difference on compact density. Barley straw grind had the highest asymptotic modulus among all other biomass grinds indicating that compact from barley straw grind were more rigid than those of other compacts. Asymptotic modulus increased with an increase in maximum compressive pressure. The trend of increase in asymptotic modulus (EA) with the maximum compressive pressure (0) was fitted to a second order polynomial equation.
Keywords: Biomass grinds, chemical composition, compact density and asymptotic modulus