Deriving Fuel From Pine Needles Through Pyrolysis, Charring and Briquetting and Their GHG Emission Potential

The present communication presents an overview of generating renewable fuels from pine needles through pyrolysis and briquetting technology. Pine needles are the products of leaf shedding in the forests from pine trees and are considered potential fire hazards. Studies conducted in the last few years show that this biomass can be effectively utilized for the production of bio-oil, biochar and briquettes in an environment-friendly manner. Through pyrolysis, pine needles could be conver­ted to 35% bio-oil with a calorific value of 28.52 MJ kg^–1, which can be a base material for other fuels and chemicals. The process also yields 25% biochar, which has a half-life of 600–1000 years and is a suitable material for soil carbon sequestration. The proposed pine needle-based energy centre can produce about 3.8 t briquettes, 1.2 t bio-oil, 1.6 t biochar and 1240 Nm³ pyrolysis gas from 10 t pine needles, with an energy efficiency of 87.2%. Greenhouse gas emissions were found to be considerably lower for charring and pyrolysis routes compared to forest burning.