Particle density determination of pellets and briquettes

Several methods and procedures for the determination of particle density of pellets and briquettes were tested and evaluated. Round robin trials were organized involving five European laboratories, which measured the particle densities of 15 pellet and five briquette types. The test included stereometric methods, methods based on liquid displacement (hydrostatic and buoyancy) applying different procedures and one method based on solid displacement. From the results for both pellets and briquettes, it became clear that the application of a method based on either liquid or solid displacement (only tested on pellet samples) leads to an improved reproducibility compared to a stereometric method. For both, pellets and briquettes, the variability of measurements strongly depends on the fuel type itself. For briquettes, the three methods tested based on liquid displacement lead to similar results. A coating of the samples with paraffin did not improve the repeatability and the reproducibility. Determinations with pellets proved to be most reliable when the buoyancy method was applied using a wetting agent to reduce surface tensions without sample coating. This method gave the best values for repeatability and reproducibility, thus less replications are required to reach a given accuracy level. For wood pellets, the method based on solid displacement gave better values of repeatability, however, this instrument was tested at only one laboratory.