Ash Content

Ash is the inorganic residue such as silica, potassium, calcium, sulphur and chlorine that remains after combustion at high temperatures and constitutes between 0.2 and 20 % of the biomass weight. In general most biomass contains similar levels of C, H and O, but the amounts of Si, Ca, Mg, K, P, S, Cl, Al, Fe and Mn, or heavy metals such as Cu, Zn, Co, Mo, As, Ni, Cr, Pb, Cd, V and Hg can differ widely (Obernberger et al. 1997).

The ash content of different types of biomass used in South Africa for energy conversion is given in Table 8.5.