Nowadays, people in our society pay more and more attention to environmental problems. Therefore, more and more biomass pellets and biomass briquettes begin to replace the traditional fossil fuels because the biomass pellets and briquettes release very little harmful substances with high combustion rate, which is a great improvement on environmental protection. However, it is undeniable that many people still do not understand the difference between biomass fuels and conventional fuels and the differences between biomass pellets and briquettes. Here we will elaborate on this issue, before explaining this issue, we should first understand the difference between biomass fuels and traditional fuels.
Difference between biomass fuels and fossil fuels
Fossil fuels
Fossil fuels have been used for a long time.In general, they mean coal, natural gas and gasoline. Over time, the consumption of fossil fuels has increased dramatically and the amount of fossil fuels has declined rapidly. However, they are non-renewable resources. So overuse makes fossil fuels very valuable. Moreover, the burning of fossil fuels can cause serious pollution to the air and ultimately harm humans. Therefore, fossil fuels must be used where they are most important and needed, rather than being burned as fuel.
Biomass fuels
Biomass fuels are renewable by comparison with fossil fuels. Its raw materials are usually plants. Some biomass, such as grass or crops, can be grown every year. Others like trees can be grown every ten years, so biomass fuels are renewable. In addition, the biomass fuels will not release harmful gases such as sulfur dioxide, which has a great role in promoting on the environmental protection, so many countries, especially in the European Union countries have passed laws and regulations to support the use of biomass fuels.
Fossil fuels Biomass fuels
Why not burning biomass directly but make into solid fuels?
In the past, people used raw materials such as sawdust to heat and burn directly. This is possible, but other biomass such as rice straw, straw, rice husk, palm fiber and so on are not suitable for direct use, because they usually have large size, and storage or transportation cost is very high. In addition, direct use of biomass raw materials can not be fully burnt. Therefore, the emergence of biomass pellet machine and biomass briquette machine is necessary, they can make the biomass into shape the rules of solid fuel, so it is convenient to use, and also convenient for transportation and storage, and has higher calorific value (heating value).
Difference between biomass pellets and biomass briquettes
Biomass pellets
Biomass pellets are a cylindrical shape stick which is made of raw material by the pellet machine for the combustion purpose. Before making biomass pellets, raw materials should be crushed into a suitable powder form, and then extruded by the pellet machine, which can be tightly suppressed by the powdery materials. Finally, biomass pellets are formed.
Biomass pellets are commonly used in household granule furnaces, central heating boilers, industrial boilers or power plants to replace coal. They can also be used as bedding and cat litter.
Biomass briquettes
The biomass briquette is a large diameter of the biomass press with different shapes (hexagons, cylinders, cubes, etc.) rods or blocks. They are mainly used for heating industrial purposes. A biomass briquette made of a spiral pressure mechanism can be made into a coal cake barbecue because of its light weight and shape rules.They are more durable and easy to transport and store.
Through this brief introduction, you may have a general understanding of biomass and fossil fuels, biomass pellets and biomass briquettes. If you want to know more about solid biomass fuel, please feel free to contact us.
