Study on Thermal Behaviour and Risk Assessment of Biomass Fuels

Recently, there has been developing of various biomass fuels because of global warming and rise in the price of crude oil. However, if these biomass fuels are put into practical use without sufficient risk assessment, there is a high risk of accident. From the viewpoint of risk and crisis management, obtaining information about the risk of newly developed biomass fuels is important. For biomass fuels, especially those made from waste, faint heat is generated by fermentation, and this faint heat carries the risk of causing and resulting in spontaneous ignition following an increase in heat temperature. In this study, the risk of faint heat generation by fermentation, which can trigger of spontaneous ignition, has been considered using the sensitive thermal analysis equipment and biomass fuels made from waste, which have been scheduled for future use in Japan. It was found that biomass fuels made from waste generates faint heat by fermentation, such faint heat generation becomes thetrigger of spontaneous ignition.