(36d) Assessment of the Abrasiveness of Biomass and MSW Feedstock Particulate Materials

Various components in equipment for handling and preprocessing of biomass and MSW feedstock materials are susceptible to excessive wear. This will adversely affect the quality and throughput of different unit operations producing feedstock particles for different downstream conversation processes. Mitigation of wear issues in these various components is the primary focus of FCIC task 1 team. Abrasive and erosive wear modes have been identified as the predominant wear mechanisms in these components. Because of the complex nature of biomass and MSW feedstock in terms of variabilities in compositions and levels of contamination, the wear produced by interaction between preprocessing equipment and feedstock particulate materials is also complex. In order to effectively address the wear issues in these preprocessing equipment, there is a need for an effective method or test protocol to evaluate the performance of different materials and surface treatments being developed to address the wear in materials of construction of the equipment. When possible, the use of a standard test method is always preferable for several reasons: test methods have been vigorously evaluated; repeatability of results tends to be better documented and understood; and occasionally, previous data exists allowing comparison of results. For 3 body abrasive wear testing by particulate materials, the ASTM G 65 –Dry Sand Rubber Wheel Abrasion test is the most commonly used standard test. This test is commonly used to evaluate and rank the abrasive wear resistance of metallic materials subjected to low stress abrasion in service such as agricultural tools, construction and mining equipment. As the name indicates, the standard abradant in ASTM G 65 is 50/70 mesh silica sand. However, the test method can be appropriated to evaluate the abrasiveness of different particulate materials, such as biomass and MSW particles, instead of standard sand. This paper presents our adaptation of the ASTM G 65 –Dry Sand Rubber Wheel Abrasion test protocol to assess the abrasiveness of pine particle biomass and MSW particulate materials. Tests were conducted with three types of abradants namely (1) the standard AFS 50/70 silica sand with an average mesh size of 212-300 µm; (2) loblolly pine biomass particles with sieve of 2 mm; and (3) paper-rich MSW with an average of 2 mm particle size. 1045 steel plate was used as the test material. All the three particulate produced measureable amount of wear. Although there were significant differences in the amount of wear by different type of particles, optical microscopy of the worn surfaces confirmed the mechanism of wear in tests with all type of particles was abrasion. The result of this study demonstrates the applicability of a standard ASTM test method for the evaluation and assessment of the abrasiveness of biomass and MSW particulate materials.