Abstract:
To investigate the carbon emission intensity and regularity of biomass fuel for bulk curing of tobacco leaves, reasonable biomass fuel forms and heater types were selected, and the carbon emission levels and reduction potential were analyzed. Comparative experiments were conducted among three types of heaters using the biomass fuel. The carbon emission characteristics were analyzed using carbon emission factor and mass balance method. The grain-to-straw ratio was used to measure the heating potential of the bulk curing with tobacco stalk biomass instead of coal. The results showed that the carbon emissions per unit of dry tobacco leaves for external heating with biomass chips and biomass pellets, and internal heating with biomass pellets were 1.94, 2.09, and 2.05 kg CO
2/kg dry tobacco leaves, respectively. Indirect carbon emissions from electricity consumption of the three types of heaters accounted for 11.4%, 11.5%, and 12.3% of the total emissions, respectively. The use of collected and processed tobacco stalk biomass for curing could provide no less than 82.9% of the total energy consumption, which was a significant energy supply potential. Taking coal-fired tobacco curing as a reference, the emission reduction of the above three types of heaters was 29.9%, 24.5%, and 26.0%, respectively. The biomass fuel-fired heaters have excellent emission reduction performance and can be more suitable heat sources for bulk curing of tobacco leaves.