Bioenergy holds a crucial position on greenhouse gases mitigation and illustrates the best decarbonizing performance when involving wastes and residues due to the avoidance of high impacts from dedicated crop production and emissions from waste management. In Canada, the annual average production of agricultural residues is estimated at 48 million dry megagram, with straw contributing an estimated average net yield of 15 million megagram basically from the cereal straws produced in the Canadian Prairies. However, due to challenge of storage and transportation of the seasonal crop residues, it is highly likely that processes such as densification, pelletisation, briquetting, etc., will be increased to achieve incorporation to the future supply chain.<br/><br/>To address these needs, we present an efficient deep eutectic solvent (DES) pretreatment approach that can fabricate wheat straw pellet demonstrating high heating value, durability, water stability, solvent recyclable, as well as low cost, which has not been previously reported. The design of the pretreatment method retained large content of lignin, which not only presented as binder in the pelletisation process and improve the pellet stability during the logistics transportation, but also enhance the combustion characteristics in the subsequent application. After treatment, the durability and hardness of all pellets increased, especially with higher acidy ratio. The elevated devolatilization index and decreased activation energy show volatile matters of all pellets are easier to release during pyrolysis. Specific energy consumption and energy gain were determined to evaluate the efficiency of the pellet manufacturing process. The results are helpful in preparing a guideline to generate wheat straw pellets for fuel purpose in agricultural waste utilization as well as in large-scale centralized wheat straw pelleting plants.

Energy pellets from whole-wheat straw processed with a deep eutectic solvent: A comprehensive thermal, molecular and environmental evaluation

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