Abstract
Shredders are widely used to reduce biomass feedstock size through the shearing action of the cutter teeth that are susceptible to wear. A series of wear tests using a custom-built shredder was conducted on corn stover feedstock with three cutter materials: a conventional D2 tool steel, iron boriding as a candidate surface treatment, and M42 tool steel as a candidate alloy. Wear tests showed that the iron borided D2 steel significantly increased the tool life compared with the non-treated D2 and M42. Although the M42 cutters initially exhibited less wear than the D2 cutters, the benefit faded as preprocessing progressed. The experimental results demonstrated that the durability of shredder cutters can be substantially improved by applying more wear-resistant tool materials.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 110766 |
| Journal | Tribology International |
| Volume | 210 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2025 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank Craig Zimmerman from Bluewater Thermal Solutions for conducting heat treatment and boriding of the steel cutters and for thoughtful comments and insight. The authors would like to acknowledge Daniel Fleming and Caitlin Duggan from Oak Ridge National Laboratory for sample preparation. This research was sponsored by the Feedstock Conversion Interface Consortium of the Bioenergy Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy. The authors would like to thank Craig Zimmerman from Bluewater Thermal Solutions for conducting heat treatment and boriding of the steel cutters and for thoughtful comments and insight. The authors would like to acknowledge Daniel Fleming and Caitlin Duggan from Oak Ridge National Laboratory for sample preparation. This research was sponsored by the Feedstock Conversion Interface Consortium of the Bioenergy Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC and Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under Contracts No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 and DE-AC07-05ID14517, and created by UChicago Argonne, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting he article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC and Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under Contracts No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 and DE-AC07-05ID14517, and created by UChicago Argonne, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting he article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- Biomass
- Cutter wear
- Surface treatment
- Tool steel