As an alternative to solid wood (log and chip) burning this project seeks to explore the development of Montana agricultural crop residue biobased pellet fuels for residential stove and commercial boiler burning. Biobased processed engineered fuels utilize individual or composite materials to create fuels (typically in pellets, briquettes, or logs) that can be manufactured to take advantage of materials that are common to local Montana areas. In an agricultural State like Montana, where bio-ag materials are readily available - similar to the many grain varieties produced in Montana, biobased fuel varieties could be also be manufactured in various regions of the State. In some cases, depending on the availability of raw materials, processed engineered fuels may be produced from a combination of bio-materials and fossil-fuels; such as ag crop residue and coal chips/dust. In other cases, should the most readily available fuel material have a low burn heat output, an oilseed crop like Camelina could be added to boost the BTU output. To further the possibilities of manufacturing these types of fuels, exploration of using waste paper, paper board (32% of municipal waste stream with 6,000-9,000 BTU/lb) and some plastics (12% of municipal waste stream with13,000-20,000 BTU/lb) [compared to Montana coal - ~ 8,000 BTU/lb] to produce “waste-derived engineered fuels” could be used to take advantage of waste materials throughout the State that are difficult to recycle and are currently transported to one of only 28 landfills in Montana.
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