Experimental Results of Mass and Energy Yield Referred to Different Torrefaction Pathways

The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of temperature and time on the final quality of torrefied biomass. In particular this study analyses the influence of different time–temperature pathways in reaching selected values of Mass Yield Ratio (M.Y.R.) by applying torrefaction treatment on samples of spruce pine. This represents an innovative approach as, making reference to the majority of the published works, M.Y.R. is not considered an independent parameter but a result of random conditions with temperatures ranging from 240 to 300 °C and duration arbitrary selected within few minutes to 1–2 h. For the investigated torrefied samples, energy parameters as high heating value, energy densification ratio, energy yield besides ultimate analysis are therefore determined.