Workshop on measurements of solid and liquid Biofuel Key Parameters

The 1st BIOFMET Stakeholders' Workshop was held in IST, Lisbon, Portugal, on 2^nd and 3^rd of June 2022.

The Workshop on measurements of solid and liquid biofuel key parameters aimed to present the work developed in the BIOFMET project to interested parties from industries and research and to offer an open forum for discussions based on lectures and posters about the current project progress.

The workshop began with Raquel Segurado (IST) welcoming the participants. Then, Jan Nielsen (DTI), the project’s coordinator, introduced the project, focusing on aims and expected impact on industry and standardization. Jan also explained the concepts of traceability, calibration, and quality control in the metrological context. Moaaz Shehab (PTB) presented an improved technical practice for the determination of the calorific value, which focuses on limiting the sources of error during the measurements to assure minimum repeatability and uncertainty.

Jan Nielsen (DTI)

Moaaz Shehab (PTB)

Online measurements of water content in biofuels are challenging due to the inhomogeneity of the materials and the sources of errors that influence traditional techniques such as MW (microwave) and NIR (near-infrared). Henrik Kjeldsen (DTI) discussed the accurate measurement of water in solid biofuels, presenting the works developed by DTI in proper calibration techniques to secure reliable measurements in power plants. Eric Georgin (LNE-CETIAT) gave a short overview of moisture measurement techniques for solid materials, and then focused on reference methods implemented at LNE-CETIAT, namely, a comparison performed between EWV (evolved water vapor) and CKF (coulometric Karl Fischer).

Henrik Kjeldsen (DTI)

Eric Georgin (LNE-CETIAT)

Michal Voldán (CMI) presented a prototype of an acoustic hygrometer that is under development at CMI, including its principles of operation, current condition, and latest results.

Michal Voldán (CMI)

LNE-CETIAT worked for several years on moisture measurement techniques namely based on microwave and radio-frequency. Bayan Tallawi (LNE-CETIAT) described the interest of this method and presented the latest achievements obtained within the BIOFMET project. Pierre Sabouroux (AMU) discussed the online radio frequency characterization of water content in liquid biofuels. The propagation of microwaves in a material depends on the value of the permittivity. In the case of a liquid ethanol/water mixture, the permittivity depends on the amount of water. The multi-probe sensor is based on this observation. The microwave tests carried out on a prototype cell of reduced dimensions make it possible to envisage the integration of such a device in a production line.

Bayan Tallawi (LNE-CETIAT)

Pierre Sabouroux (AMU)

In the remaining part of the afternoon, the poster session took place, where the following posters were presented:

Improved metrological methodologies to address the challenges associated with the determination of biomass key parameters in the laboratory – calorific value, Moaaz Shehab and Kai Moshammer, PTB
Preparation of solid biofuel sample materials for reference measurements, Helena Strauss, DTI
Calorific value measurements at TUBITAK UME, Kemal Özcan TUBITAK
Determination of impurity and residuals in solid and liquid biofuels, Alper İşleyen, TUBITAK
Reference Materials, Alper İşleyen, TUBITAK
Acoustic measurement of moisture, Libor Husník, CTU

Poster session

Reference materials developed at TUBITAK

The sampling process is often the largest contributor to measurement uncertainty for the measurement of water content and calorific values of solid biofuels. In the first presentation of the second day of the workshop, Henrik Kjeldsen (DTI) presented a comprehensive comparative analysis of different sampling methods: by truck driver, according to the standard EN ISO 18135:2017 and using a fully automated sampling system (developed by PROMETEC).

Alper İşleyen (TUBITAK) presented general Information about reference materials: types, application areas and tools (i.e., databases) for proper selection and proper use of the reference materials to ensure good quality, accurate and traceable measurement results. Information about how reference materials can be used for evaluating method performance and estimation of uncertainty, available free applications and software was also discussed.

Henrik Kjeldsen (DTI)

Alper İşleyen (TUBITAK)

Radek Strnad (CMI) presented work package 3 of BIOFMET, including various ways of advanced data science approach to data measurement, software tools used by CMI and several output examples.

Finally, Miguel Horák presented the Portuguese company Torbel, a manufacturer of thermal energy equipment powered by biomass fuels. This company has clients worldwide and understands that biomass characterization is very important. For Portugal, Spain and France, biomass specification is very scarce and that causes several operational problems. Torbel is very interested in solutions and devices for online accurate measurements and control of fuel specifications.