THE ESSENCE OF THE PROJECT PROPOSED BY BOHDAN HRIUKOV, A STUDENT OF THE IGOR SIKORSKY KYIV POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, IS TO GENERATE HEAT BY BURNING FALLEN LEAVES PRESSED INTO BRIQUETTES OR PELLETS.
Every year, janitors clean up the leaves in parks and courtyards and take most of them to the landfill. But, these leaves can be formed into briquettes and used instead of coal for heating or water heating.
Leaves are certainly not coal, the specific heating value of leaves is about half that of coal. Therefore, leaf biomass is needed twice as much as coal. But there is no need to mine the leaves, just take them to a CHP plant or the nearest boiler house that has been converted to burn this raw material instead of landfilling them.
The technology of briquetting or pelletizing is already well developed, but drying requires energy. To solve this problem, the author of the project proposes to use free solar energy.
The benefits of the project are obvious. Switching to local, renewable, cheap raw materials creates an alternative to coal and gas, which are in short supply. In addition, the cost of heating and logistics is reduced.
There is also an environmental benefit: the ash content of the leaves is the lowest possible, about 5% percent.
The project is distinguished by the simplicity of the technology for producing briquetted leaf biomass, the use of a virtually free source of raw materials, and the possibility of increasing the volume of raw material production.
Prototypes have already been manufactured using primitive equipment.
