Specific energy to produce sawdust using modified blade for renewable energy source

Abstract

Abstract Sawdust is one of wood processing by-product which is potential to be utilized as renewable energy source. The current problem in the conventional sawdust production is its high energy consume due to the long of production process involving chipping, coarse milling, drying, and fine milling. The aim of this study is to investigate the specific energy of a shorter production process of sawdust which is consist of only milling and drying process. In the milling process, a modification by changing blade from chipper machine to a knife from sawing machine for directly produce sawdust from a wood log. Drying process in this research use the heat pump drying. The wood material used in this research are Gamal, Calliandra and Sengon. A total of six compositions consisting of all type of wood milling and three variation of air velocity in heat pump drying were used to produce sawdust. The data collected such as: production time, power consumption, and moisture content. The best result show that the shorter production process of sawdust will reduce the specific energy around 60% with final moisture content around 10%. The value of energy specific for gamal, calliandra and sengon are 0,042 kWh/kg, 0,094 kWh/kg, 0,063 kWh/kg respectively. In the other side, modification of milling machine in this research have capacity around 65 kg/hours.