Production and Characterisation of Cork Pellets: An Alternative for Sustainable Energy Recovery

Abstract

The cork industry presents itself as one of the most entrepreneurial in the Portuguese industrial sector, contributing significantly to the increase of exports. However, it is an industry in which the use of raw materials is maximised leaving a large volume of waste. The cork industry has tried to take advantage of these residues, mainly through direct energy recovery, despite the technical and safety difficulties presented by the use of such low density material, which complicates and hinders its transportation for industrial uses outside the area in which it is produced. The densification process opens new doors for such use and also for its storage, because it produces better results when compared with other more common products, such as wood sawdust or even forest and agricultural waste. Thus, cork pellets emerge as a safer and more easily transportable alternative for energy recovery from cork dust and other granulated types of cork waste, which offer the prospects for wider use. The results demonstrate that cork pellets have higher calorific value when compared with other biomass pellets; typically, approximately 19 MJ/kg with 2% volume of ashes, which is equivalent to that obtained from the combustion of pellets produced from combined forest and agricultural waste with a bulk density of 640 kg/m3, which offers real advantages in terms of logistics.