Mobile Biomass-to-Fuel Harvester Design

<b><sc>Abstract.</sc></b> Most nonfood biomass raw materials for biofuel are very bulky and their transportation costs hurt their economic feasibility. It may be possible to substantially increase the volumetric energy content by developing a mobile harvesting machine with in-field fast pyrolysis to generate biofuel and biochar. To study this possibility, a potential self-propelled machine is designed. Similar to other integrated harvesters, it combines various functions, including gathering the biomass, chopping and reducing the particle size, performing pyrolysis, and accumulating and storing the products. Such an integrated, self-propelled mobile harvester was conceptually designed. The overall machine and the component subsystems were designed to maximize the production rate within the constraints on large mobile agricultural equipment. Analyses of expected performance were made. The machine has the potential to produce biofuel directly from non-food biomass and to reduce the fuel for wildfires