Characterisation of Agriculture-Based Biomass Residue Ashes

Biomass-based residues are emerging as remarkable substitutes of energy in present days. These have widespread applications as combustible fuel for electricity generation purposes. Different biomass residues have different thermal combustion behaviour. Combustion characteristics of these residues and there ashes need to be evaluated for their efficient conversion. This paper presents the experimental characterisation of the some biomass residues ashes. Main aim of this work is to analyse characteristics of two biomass residues including wheat straw and cotton stalk for different analysis techniques. Analysis phase includes characterisation through XRD, thermal analysis and ash fusion techniques. Thermal degradation behaviour of the residue ashes was determined under oxidising (air) and inert (nitrogen) atmospheres with the flow rate of 20 ml/min within the temperature range of 30–950°C. In addition to these analyses, both the ashes were examined to know there fusion characteristics using ash fusion test (AFT). The results from thermogravimetric test were analysed using TG-DTG curves for determining their thermal degradation behaviour. XRD and AFT results are also explained to get significant information related to these ash characteristics.