FORM - 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970 (39 OF 1970)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
15 (SEC- 10, RULE 13)


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"PRODUCTION OF SOLID BIOFUEL PELLET USING ANIMAL FEED PELLET PRODUCTION MACHINERY."
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ABELLON CLEANENERGY LIMITED,
30 A Company Incorporated under the
Indian Companies Act, 1956
having its registered address at
3rd Floor, Sangeeta Complex,
Nr. Parimal Crossing, EUisbridge,
35 Ahmedabad-380 006, Gujarat State, India,


Field of Invention
This present invention relates to solid biofuel and method of producing the same by pelleting various inputs using machinery designed for animal feed pellet manufacture, on an industrial scale. Input materials could be any biomass such as but not limited to 5hydrophytes, xerophytes, fruit bearing plants, flower bearing plants, ornamental plants , C3 plants. C4 plants, forest residue, distillery grain residue, all kind of agricultural residue, peat. In pelletizing process bonding agent such as molasses, steam are used, pelleting is done at high pressure and temperature. Solid biofuel thus produced is used as a combustible fuel product in boiler and other industrial applications. 10 Background of the invention
Since fossil fuel has become a finite energy source, in the last decades many efforts have been put into the production of alternative energy materials. These alternative materials
15should not only be affordable and readily available, they also should be preferably derived from renewable sources. Among the existing renewable alternatives to fossil fuels, biomass has raised great interest. Wood or wood byproducts, saw dust, farm field left over, cotton waste, grass cuttings, groundnut shell and prime examples of renewable energy materials while production of fuel briquettes or pellets. The main source of
20firewood has been found in native forests. It is simple to imagine that these sources are limited sources, and that an increase of wood fuel consumption would not only lead to an increase in the price of these raw materials but also to the loss of many forests since a tree needs a long growth period, which decreases the desirability of wood as a renewable energy source.
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Enormous quantities of wood waste material are produced both by recycling and as byproducts of industrial and commercial activity. For example, there are number of lumber mills in the India, which continuously generate sawdust and wasted wood. As an alternative to wood-based products, other cotton waste, agriculture materials, such
30as sugar cane, groundnut shell, grass and field waste have been investigated.
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The U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,533 mentions a process for adding fat to an extruded pet food composition using an under oil cutting process wherein the extrudate is simultaneously cut, infused with oil and dried to form food pellets.
5In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,321 machine for densifying and pelleting extrudable material is disclosed. The machine includes, in combination, a flat horizontal die plate and pressure exerting means overlying the die plate, the pressure exerting means having various, alternative forms such as a continuous chain means carrying a plurality of spaced pressure members or a reciprocating frame carrying roller means. 10
The Johnston U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,897 mentions bagasse among a number of other
natural cellulosic materials, which may be pelleted by combining them with
thermoplastic polymeric material.
15 The British Pat. No. 14,983 discloses that it has been found impossible with mill bagasse to produce a satisfactory briquette without reducing the water content artificially to about 5 or 6%. To avoid this, the patent proposes to cut the bagasse into lengths of about 1/4 of an inch, squeeze out 60% to 80% of the sweet liquid, steam the resulting squeezed material and then briquette it under heavy pressure.
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The patent U.S. Pat. No. 4.236.897, which includes bagasse as one of the materials which can be pelleted by the process disclosed in that patent, requires that from about 1 to 50% by weight of polymeric thermoplastic material be present as well as the cellulosic waste material. The cellulosic material must be comminuted to a particle size such that all
25of the particles are minus 5 mesh and at least 50% of the particles are minus 10 mesh.
It is proposed to shape wood waste materials into briquettes in U.S. Forest Service Research Note FPL-75 entitled "Briquets From Wood Residue" published in November 1964 by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. As 30stated in this publication, some granular materials require no added binder because they are self bonding when briquetted at elevated temperatures. Among these is wood. At temperatures above the minimum plastic temperature (325° F. for wood), the elastic
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strains set up in the material under briquetting pressure are completely relieved and the particle surfaces come together into intimate contact. Cohesion of the interfaces, interlocking of broomed-out, fibrous parts of the particles, and a possible adhesion of the heat-softened lignin (the natural bonding agent between the wood fibers), all contribute to 5a binding action that imparts satisfactory strength to briquets after they have cooled under pressure.
This self-bonding feature of wood waste is the basis of a wood-briquetting process commercially practiced in this country at present. Many plants practicing this process use
10a machine known as the "Pres-to-log," made by Wood Briquettes, Inc., Lewiston, Idaho. This machine operates by compressing the waste wood (sawdust, shavings, and other scrap ground to oatmeal size) into a primary compression chamber by means of a feed screw developing a pressure of approximately 3,000 pounds per square inch, the friction at this extreme pressure generating sufficient heat to produce the necessary plasticity for
15self-bonding. The molds are cylindrical holes 4 inches in diameter spaced at regular intervals in and extending through the rim of a large wheel about 12 inches wide, with the axes of the molds parallel to the axis of the wheel. The bottom of the mold cavity is closed by a hydraulically operated piston, which supplies the necessary resistance during filling and retracts as the mold fills. When the mold is filled, the mold wheel revolves
20slightly to bring the next mold cavity into line for filling. The mold wheel is water cooled, and the briquettes are cooled below their plastic temperature by the time it makes a complete revolution. The cooled briquette is ejected from the mold as the resistance piston enters the mold cavity ahead of it preparatory to its filling.
25The 4- by 12-inch briquettes produced by this machine are suitable for hand firing but not for mechanical stoking. For stoker briquettes, a different type of machine, which is available from the same company, extrudes the self-bonded material through a cluster of eight 1-inch round holes to form continuous rods. As these rods emerge from the extrusion head, they are cut into 1-inch lengths by rotating knives and yield pellets
30suitable for mechanical stoking.
It is an object of the present invention to develop fuel pellets from natural biomass
materials for producing animal feed pellets.
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Detail description of invention
The present invention involves a biofuel pellets and a method of producing the same by 5pelletizing various inputs using machinery designed for animal feed pellet manufacture.
During mid -1920's pelleting was introduced in United States to improve feed utilization, density and handling characteristics of the feed. The so called "flat die" and "ring die" pellet mill were developed toward the end of the 1920's. Though the flat die machine is lOstill being used in certain applications, the ring die pellet mill is the preferred design adopted by the animal feed industry and is the pelleting machine of choice.
This invention generally relates to pelletizing machinery and more particularly to a pellet machine that is tolerant to various feed mateials and which subjects feed to extrusion die
15for pelleting. Further this invention relates to a method of producing solid biofuel, for instance in the form of pellets with a high energy content, based upon a raw material in the form of bio-waste, unprocessed biomass materials, bio-waste stock are material like for instance forest waste such as peat, grasses, other forest by-products such as bark, saw dust,
20agriculture residue such as sweet sorghum bagasse, sugarcane bagasse, coconut shells, groundnut shell, cotton stalk, straw and other domestic waste such as wastepaper, garbage, etc., either as such or in combination of other types of biomass.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method of preparing fuel pellets from a 25forest waste such as peat, grasses, other forest by-products such as bark, saw dust, agriculture residue such as sweet sorghum bagasse, sugarcane bagasse, coconut shells, groundnut shell, cotton stalk, straw and other domestic waste such as wastepaper, garbage, etc., with or without binder in the suitable form such as compounds, composites, aggregates, agglomerates, granules, powder, pellet and briquettes of different size ranging 30from 1 mm and above and of different shapes, odor and color. The binder could be any suitable material such as beeswax, molasses or resin of plant origin. The agricultural waste fibers typically have moisture content of about 5 to 15%. The agricultural waste
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fiber bio-waste is compressed and extruded in a dye of a pelleting machine to obtain fuel pellets having diameters of about 6 mm to 8 mm.
Pellet mills combine small materials into a larger, homogeneous mass, rather than break 51arge materials into smaller pieces. In this way, pellet mills are similar to extruders.
Biofuel pellet from pellet mills are pelletised by polymerizing the bio-waste, under the extreme heat and pressure of the pellet mill. Pressures in the "Die" reach up to 25,000 psi. for polymerization of the pellets additive substance are added for the bonding of the bio-lOwaste. Bonding agent includes molasses, steam, and other organic material, metal-organic compounds, such as metal carboxylates. Metals from the group's alkaline earth metals, rare earth metals and the iron group (group 8 in the periodic system) can be used.
The pellets are still hot while leaving the dies, where they are cut to lengths normally 15about one or two times the diameter. Pellet are cooled by the cooling system arranged after the densification process.
The standard pelleting process in animal feed production achieves a combination of heating and moisturizing, performing the mechanical work and densification and shaping
20of feed product. Heating and moisturizing is required for softening the feed to a sufficient degree for forming durable pellets without plugging the pellet die. It is generally accomplished by injecting steam into the feed within a conditioning chamber and holding the mixture until the heat and moisture from the conditioning steam is absorbed into a feed product. In a pellet mill of standard configuration, mechanical work is performed by
25the pinching action of a roller passing over a die face. Densification occurs as a result of the pressure required to force the feed product through the die holes.
The fuel pellet is preferably manufactured by first processing the input material to
reduce the size to about 10 to 50 mm, by running through Shredder,, where the
30input material size is reduced so that about 60 to 70% material is of about 20 mm
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to 30 mm, 15 to 20% material is of about 10 mm to 20 mm and remaining 15 to 25% material is of about 30 mm to 50 mm in size. The reduced input material is then dried using a three pass Belt Conveyor type Drier, where in material is dried by hot air blown at temperature from about 100 degree centigrade to 200 degree 5centigrade. Moisture content of dried material is from about 10 wt.% to 12 wt.%. Dried material is passed using intake elevator, model RKBE 10 inch, where material is passed through a slide gate and a magnet to remove metal impurities, to grinding hopper. From hopper material material passes through slide gate and a rotary feeder with magnetic separator and air control flap to Hammer Mill. The
lOhammer mill in this case is RK Hammer Mill Model RKHM 125, to grind the material to about 2 mm to 3 mm. The powdered material is then transferred through a hopper having a pneumatic slide gate to twin rotor paddle type horizontal mixer model IN 2500-2. Further the material is transferred using paddle conveyor RKPC - 300, mix feed elevator mode] RKBE 10 inch, and a
15screw conveyor model RKSC - 300 to a hopper above pellet mill mixer. If required water is sprinkled so as to moisten the material. The moist well mixed material is conveyed to mixer steam conditioner, equipped with multi point steam injection and adjustable paddle for mixing, hot water or steam may be injected to treated material at about 125 degree centigrade to 150 degree centigrade, and feed
20to the pellet mill in this case Inovo 52-14, having die of 520 mm inner diameter, 140 mm width and 50 holes each of 6 mm diameter. The extruded pellets are cut by adjustable cutter assembly producing pellets of about 6 mm to 10 mm diameter and about 6 mm to 20 mm length. The temperature of extruded pellets is about 50 to 80 degree centigrade, pellets are air cooled in a counter flow cooler, in this case
25Model RKM 18 x 18, and then passed through screen before packing. The machinery used is from R K Machines, Halol, Gujarat, India. The preferred moisture content of the final pellet is from about 6% and about 12%. which avoids potential spoilage during extended storage.
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The invention further relates to the fuel pellet manufactured by using pellet manufacturing machinery from Khare Agro Mech Industries Private Limited, Miraj, India.
Example 1: 5BiofueI pellets were made using different input materials, as per the procedure described in detail description. The input material was weighed out and total 900 kilogram material was shredded to about 20 millimeter size and further processed in grinder to average size of less than 4 millimeter, the material was mixed in mixer for about five minutes The well mixed material was steamed, 27 kg steam at 2 kilogram per square centimeter lOpressure was added. The material was pelleted, using pellet machinery provided by R K Machines, Haloh Gujarat, India. Pellets were cooled by atmospheric air. Pellets were analyzed for Moisture, Ash content. Volatile matter, Fixed carbon, and Gross Calorific value, as per IS: 1350-1984 Part I and IS: 1350-1070 Part II, results are as described in Table 1 below.
15Table 1

Input Moisture % Ash % Volatile matter % Fixed
Carbon % GCV
Kcal / Kg Bulk Density
Cotton stalk 6.22 13 65.26 15.58 4142 0.71
Cotton
stalk :Cumin
stalk (50:50) 7.67 7.7 64.25 20.38 4090 0.67
Example 2:
Biofuel pellets were made using different input materials as per the procedure described
in example 1. Pellets were prepared using pellet machinery provided by Khare Agro
20Mech Industries Private Limited, Miraj, India. Pellets were analyzed for Moisture, Ash
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content, Volatile matter, Fixed carbon, and Gross Calorific value, as per IS: 1350-1984 Part I and IS: 1350-1070 Part II, results are as described in Table 2 below Table 2

Input Moisture % Ash % Volatile matter % Fixed Carbon % GCV
Kcal / Kg Bulk Density
Cotton stalk 7.46 12 63.74 16.73 4021 0.72
Cotton stalk :Cumin stalk (50:50) 4.2 7.8 64.8 23.2 4162 0.7
For, ABELLON CLEANENERGY LIMITED

To
The Controller of Patents
The Patent Office, 15Mumbai.

NAYAN ADHYARU (Director)