Contribution to the Energy Situation in Tajikistan by Using Residual Apricot Branches after Pruning as an Alternative Fuel

Abstract

A lack of access to energy in the rural areas of Tajikistan is one of the current problems of the country. Tajikistan’s goal is to reach energy independency, and the main prospects for the country’s energy sector, which relies on energy imports during the long heating periods, are: higher exploitations of hydropower and development of other renewables, mainly biofuels. Tajikistan is a highly agrarian country, where agriculture is the dominant source of income for the majority of the population. Apricot belongs to the primary agricultural commodities; however, the cultivation and management of apricot orchards is associated with the annual accumulation of significant amounts of wood waste (residual branches after pruning), which represent a source of easily available biomass. Thus, the main focus of the present research was to investigate the properties (physical, chemical and mechanical) of densified briquettes and pellets from the residual apricot tree branches through the laboratory measurements by the standard methodologies and to calculate the energy yield and potential of this material for Tajikistan as a similar study has not been conducted yet. The results showed a good quality of apricot-based biofuels characterised by the high calorific value (NCV dry basis of 19.3 MJ kg−1), relatively low ash content (1.7%) and suitable values of the main chemical elements that fulfil the standard requirement on graded wooden biofuels. The total yearly energy yield of residual apricot branches was calculated to be 3245 TJ.