TITLE:
First Results from a Solar-Biomass Hybrid System for the Production of Solar Carbon
AUTHORS:
Hans Grassmann, Marco Citossi, Renato Bernes, Andrea Piani
KEYWORDS:
Renewable Energy, Solar Biomass Conversion, Concentrated Solar Pow-er, Solar Carbon, Solar Pyrolysis, Linear Mirror, Solar Heat Exchanger
JOURNAL NAME:
Smart Grid and Renewable Energy,
Vol.11 No.2,
February
28,
2020
ABSTRACT: Solar energy as well as biomass energy techniques suffers from disadvantages, which
in some cases limit their potential for substituting fossil fuels. For instance,
solar energy is difficult to store, and many kinds of biomass are not suited
for combustion, in spite of the fact that they have high energy contents. We
describe and industrial size system, which has the goal of overcoming some of
these limitations by combining solar- and biomass power. This is achieved by
roasting residual biomass by means of hot air provided by solar power only. The
solar power is collected by three “Linear Mirror” solar concentrator, they are designed to
achieve high efficiency also at northern latitudes. Each one is equipped with
an innovative solar-air heat exchanger. The hot air is delivered to a roasting
device filled with humid residual biomass. We report the performance of this
system from a first commissioning run. The system is intended to help create a
closed-cycle economy by means of transforming waste biomasses to a high-quality
combustible.