Investigation of the Thermal Behaviour of Different Biomasses

Dear Colleagues,

Biomasses are characterized as feedstocks that possess a significantly lower or a neutral CO₂ footprint in their utilization compared to fossil feedstocks. This class of biomass feedstocks covers an extremely broad range of material, from agricultural and herbaceous biomass, wood and woody biomass, aquatic biomass, animal and human biomass waste, and industrial biomass wastes as well as bio-based materials, which are already characterized by a remarkable variation within each group and, in particular, an even more significant variation between each group. In contrast to the fossil feedstocks, biomasses are accompanied by a higher variation in their chemical and ash composition. This is a result of the fact that biomasses exhibit extraordinary sort- and origin-specific properties. For example, many factors, including the biomass type itself as well as the place and season of growth and harvest, further storage and treatment, determine their specific feedstock characteristics. Thus, their thermal behaviour in any kind of conversion process will be affected by the source and origin of these feedstocks. The changed properties of biomasses compared to fossil feedstocks are accompanied by lower heating value, less-stable plant operation and higher tendency of deposit formation by fouling, sintering, slagging, and agglomeration, which causes lower energy generation, enhanced corrosion and increased total downtimes of the plants. All thermochemical conversion processes of these feedstocks must be analysed, adapted, and controlled to generate a reliable plant operation with respect to the variation of the feedstock properties. Therefore, specific classification methods of the feedstocks, novel process analysis, modelling, process coupling, and control mechanisms have to be implemented to ensure the trouble-free operation of the plants using biomasses, which means that these “flexible conversion plants” are able to utilize various biomasses in an optimal way.

This Special Issue focusses on all aspects of biomass feedstocks, from their use in thermal conversion processes to their emissions and residual materials, which can be best described by understanding the feedstock–process relationship for biomass utilization.

Dr. Markus Reinmöller
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.