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International audience; Argan nut shell (ANS) is one of the most abundant agricultural by-product in the southwestern of Morocco. This study aims to focus on thermal characteristics of ANS biomass for alternative energy production. Physicochemical studies were done to characterize biomass-based material. Moreover, thermal degradation characteristics and kinetic parameters were assessed under pyrolysis and oxidizing conditions by means of thermogravimetric methods. Fundamental tests involving particle combustion of ANS and coal were carried out, and a comparison was performed. The results exhibit a negligible amount of nitrogen and sulfur and a heating value of 20.63 MJ kg-1 compared to 24 MJ kg-1 for high grad coals. Furthermore, ANS follows the usual structural decomposition of lignocellulosique biomass, while coal reveal a discrete devolatilization zone. In addition, combustion tests show a significant burning period and high particle temperature. This experimental research is intended to provide a reference data of ANS biomass for energy recovery through combustion.

International audience; The paper describes a 3D numerical simulation of pulverized solid olive waste (OW) combustion in a vertical combustor. This study is developed, in order to design a new efficient burner which operates with olive waste as a biomass fuel. Two types of injection modes are studied. The first named (R) where the biomass particles is perpendicularly injected to symmetric axis close to the co-flow entry by four injection square shape tubes and the second named (P) where particles are injected in parallel to the furnace central axis. The mean diameter of the pulverized particles is about 70 µm. The designed system is a vertical cylindrical furnace with swirling co-flow burner entry. The k-ε, mixture fraction PDF and discrete phase DPM models are used for turbulence closure, turbulence-chemistry interactions and tracking the particle motion respectively. Results show that the flame is more stabilized in the recirculation zones and achieved the higher temperature at 1560 K for (R) case. The particles residence time inside to the combustor is very important for the (R) case in comparison to (P) case. The analyses and comparison of the formed species for CO, CO2 and NOx formation profiles at several longitudinal locations between (R) and (P) cases are performed.