الفهرس 
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Abstract
Abstract
This work targets the investigation and studying of the
appropriate conditions for the production of pellets as a solid biofuel
from agricultural residues. Agricultural residues in Egypt have been
studied and characterized in order to select the most promising and
suitable raw materials for the purpose of bio-pellets production.
Agricultural residues have been characterized based on
amounts, availability, geographic distribution, collection prices,
current utilization methods and physio-chemical properties of the
residues. Trading off between these parameters is based on a
screening matrix; in which every factor affecting the production of
pellets was weighted on a 0 to 100 scale and the highest score raw
material was selected to produce pellet samples for factory tests and
experimentations. Based on the screening matrix results, rice straw,
cotton stalks, and sorghum stalks have been chosen for study.
Agro-pellet samples were produced from rice straw, cotton and
sorghum stalks with different water and molasses concentrations. The
associated quality parameters of the produced pellet samples in terms
of calorific value, single pellet density, bulk density of pellets and
mechanical durability index were measured and compared to the
requirement of international standards for agro-pellets. International
agro-pellet standards’ lower limits are 12 MJ/kg for calorific value, 1.2
g/cm3 for single pellet density, 600 kg/m3 for bulk density and 96.6%
mechanical durability index. A maximum water content of 10% and
natural additives at a maximum of 2% is permitted. The results show
that the produced agro-pellets well satisfy these international
standards requirements.
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Producing rice straw pellets with 1.1% water content (w.b.) will
result in high quality pellets satisfying the requirements of
international standards in terms of calorific value, single pellet density,
bulk density of pellets and mechanical durability, their values were
found to be 15.45 MJ/kg, 1.435 g/cm3, 717.5 kg/m3 and 99.904%,
respectively.
Producing cotton stalks pellets with 1.95% water content (w.b.)
results in high quality pellets satisfying the requirements of
international standards in terms of calorific value, single pellet density,
bulk density of pellets and mechanical durability.
Sorghum stalks require the addition of 1.6 % water in order to
produce sound agro-pellets satisfying the international demands.
Generally, all agro-fibres doped with 2 % molasses proved to
be successful agro-pellets. Despite the slightly reduced calorific value
associated with the use of molasses, the use of this binding agent
proved to be beneficial in terms of energy reduction along the
pelleting process.