Bio-crude oil production from a new genotype of Miscanthus sacchariflorus Geodae-Uksae 1

Abstract

A new genotype of Miscanthus sacchariflorus Geodae-Uksae 1, which was recently collected from damp land in South Korea, was pyrolyzed in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor for bio-crude oil production. Comparing to woody biomass this has a remarkably economic advantage of very low water content, because it is collected after naturally dried in autumn. This biomass was ground and sieved to acquire the fine size less than 1 mm and fed into the reactor with feeding rate of 200 g/hr continuously. Four reactor temperatures, 400, 450, 500, and 550 °C were set to investigate the optimal temperature for highest bio-crude oil yield and quality. Proximate and ultimate analyses were done for both biomass and bio-crude oil to scrutinize the property change during the fast pyrolysis. Experimental results showed that the maximum bio-crude oil yield was obtained to be 51.88 wt% at the pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C. The maximum higher heating value (HHV) of bio-crude oil was determined to be 15.88 MJ/kg at 400 °C, which was similar to the original biomass. At the pyrolysis temperature of 400 °C, the moisture content of bio-crude oil was 19.46 wt% which was increased by 8.61 wt% than the original biomass. Overall fuel properties of miscanthus sacchariflorus Gedae-Uksae 1 was thought to be similar to the general woody bio-crude oil.