(334f) Experiment-Informed Discrete-Particle Flow Models for Anatomical Fractions of Forestry Residue-Derived Granular Biomass

Forestry residue is an important source of biomass feedstocks in North America and often supplied to biorefineries in the form of mixture containing a variety of anatomical fractions. For example, loblolly pine residue contains a mixture of bark chips, stem woodchips, and needles. These anatomical fractions may have preferred or adverse mechanical and chemical properties for material flow and transport operations in biorefineries. Understanding the flowability of the pine residue mixture as well as the individual anatomical fractions will elucidate the optimal design of preprocessing (screening, size reduction, drying, etc.) to minimize process upsets in material handling unit operations. In this work we propose several discrete element method (DEM) particle models for the anatomical fractions of loblolly pine residue and assess their suitability for capturing the key flow characteristics measured in physical experiments. The experimental data used for calibration and validation for the DEM models include FT4 powder rheometer, tribometer, and Schultz ring shear tester. The predictability and relative computational costs of each tested DEM model will be reported. Strategies to model the herbaceous biomass and municipal solid waste (MSW) with DEM will also be discussed.