Analysis of the Pelletability of Vegetable Crop Foliage Using a Commercial Flat Die Pellet Mill
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Other UBC
department or school: Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of
data provider: DSpace
identifier citation: Energies 18 (9): 2284 (2025)
creator: Gholami Banadkoki, Omid
creator: Sokhansanj, Shahab
creator: Lau, Anthony
issued: 2025-05-16T14:02:41Z
issued: 2025-04-29
description: Agricultural residues serve as a vast yet underutilized biomass resource with significant potential for bioenergy and biomaterial applications. Converting these residues into densified biomass pellets enhances energy density, handling efficiency, and transportability, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional feedstocks. While extensive research has focused on woody biomass, studies on the pelletization of vegetable crop foliage remain limited. This study examines the pelletability of foliage from corn, soybean, tomato, eggplant, cucumber, and summer squash, assessing their physical properties, bulk durability, bulk density, and energy consumption during pelletization. Results demonstrated that variation in biomass composition significantly influences pellet quality, with lignin content improving durability and ash content affecting moisture uptake and combustion properties. Cucumber had the highest pellet density (691.2 kg/m³) and durability (97.9%), making it suitable for long-term storage and transport. Sawdust exhibited the lowest moisture absorption (16–18% db), which is attributed to its highest lignin content. Pelletization energy requirements varied significantly, with cucumber (21.8 kWh/t) and summer squash (18.7 kWh/t) requiring the lowest energy input, whereas soybean (49.6 kWh/t) and sawdust (47.3 kWh/t) exhibited the highest energy demands due to greater resistance to densification. A predictive model was developed to correlate single pellet density and durability with bulk pellet properties—yielding high predictive accuracy, with R² = 0.936 for bulk density (BDe) and R² = 0.861 for bulk durability (BDu)—thereby facilitating process optimization for large-scale pellet production. This study demonstrated that foliage residues from greenhouse crops, such as cucumber and summer squash, can be effectively pelletized with low energy input and high physical integrity. These outcomes suggest that such underutilized agricultural residues hold promise a…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/91155
note: Academic Editors: Carmen OtiliaRusaˇnescu and Nicoleta UngureanuReceived: 24 March 2025Revised: 18 April 2025Accepted: 25 April 2025Published: 29 April 2025Citation: Gholami Banadkoki, O.;Sokhansanj, S.; Lau, A. Analysis of thePelletability of Vegetable Crop FoliageUsing a Commercial Flat Die PelletMill. Energies 2025, 18, 2284. https://doi.org/10.3390/en18092284Copyright: © 2025 by the authors.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This article is an open access articledistributed under the terms andconditions of the Creative CommonsAttribution (CC BY) license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).ArticleAnalysis of the Pelletability of Vegetable Crop Foliage Usinga Commercial Flat Die Pellet MillOmid Gholami Banadkoki 1,2,* , Shahab Sokhansanj 1,2,3 and Anthony Lau 1,21 Biomass and Bioenergy Research Group (BBRG), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3,Canada; shahab.sokhansanj@ubc.ca (S.S.)2 Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, Faculty of Applied Science, University of British Columbia,Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada3 Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan,Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A9, Canada* Correspondence: omid1370@mail.ubc.caAbstract: Agricultural residues serve as a vast yet underutilized biomass resource withsignificant potential for bioenergy and biomaterial applications. Converting these residuesinto densified biomass pellets enhances energy density, handling efficiency, and trans-portability, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional feedstocks. While extensiveresearch has focused on woody biomass, studies on the pelletization of vegetable cropfoliage remain limited. This study examines the pelletability of foliage from corn, soybean,tomato, eggplant, cucumber, and summer squash, assessing their physical properties, bulkdurability, bulk density, and energy consumption during pelletization. Results demon-strated that variation in biomass composition significantly influences pellet quality…
has type: Article
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0448908
language: eng
peer review status: Reviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
publisher DOI: 10.3390/en18092284
rights: CC BY 4.0
rights URI: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
scholar level: Faculty
scholar level: Researcher
subject: agricultural biomass
subject: batch pellet production
subject: bulk durability
subject: pelletability
subject: physiochemical properties
subject: scale up
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91155