Artvin Coruh University Journal of Forestry Faculty

Abstract

The growing energy requirement in parallel with the increase in living standards is a major problem for countries which are dependent on foreign sources for energy. Reducing the damage effect to the environment while meeting increasing energy demand is among the priority targets. The energy obtained from coal-fired thermal power plants accounts for 32%of our country's energy needs. Most of the used coal are imported coal and hard coal in our country. The lignite reserves that have been known in recent years by exploration studies have exceeded 16 billion tons in our country. However, these lignite’s are generally low calorie, high sulfur, moisture and ash content. The development of unique designs and / or technologies for the effective evaluation of such coal at national and international level are needed. On the other hand, there is an important biomass potential in our country; this potential is still not being assessed effectively and efficiently. Tea pruning wastes, which are important agricultural wastes of the Eastern Black Sea region, were blended with lignite coal at certain ratios and the content of the mixture was determined for colorimetric value, ash content, sulfur content and volatile matter content. Although the tea pruning waste thermal value was approximately 30 %lower than the lignite, 50%blended biomass with lignite coal, ash content decreased from 12%to 6%and sulfur content decreased from 1.15%to 0.69%. It was determined that these agricultural wastes, which were used as waste and not used in industry, have a high energy potential and an environmentally friendly fuel when they are homogeneously blended with lignite coal.