ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Diversification and Environmental Impact
Assessment of Plant Biomass Energy Use
Grzegorz Maj
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Department of Power Engineering and Transportation, University of Life Sciences in Lublin
Głęboka 28, 20-612 Lublin, Poland
Submission date: 2014-12-29
Final revision date: 2015-02-09
Acceptance date: 2015-03-30
Publication date: 2015-09-21
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2015;24(5):2055-2061
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ABSTRACT
This paper studies energy and environmental indicators of biomass in the form of vegetables as input
resources, i.e. Virginia mallow, Miscanthus (x) giganteus, Jerusalem artichoke, prairie cordgrass, barley straw,
wheat straw, rye straw, corn straw, rapeseed straw, meadow hay, and pine shavings. The study involved the
measurement of physical and chemical properties, including the heat of combustion and calorific value of the
input resources under consideration. It has been proven that pine shavings have the highest calorific value and
that the heat of combustion amounts to 19.20 MJ⋅kg-1 for calorific value and 17.85 MJ⋅kg-1 for heat of combustion
with moisture content of 7.23%. The measurement of ash content has been the one of the main aims
of the study. Jerusalem artichoke has posted the highest value at 14.69%, and pine shavings the lowest at
0.85%. An eco-balance of environmental impact of respective input resources has been developed by means
of the EI environmental input indicator.