Abstract
The process of pyrolysis of beet pulp, a by-product after the extraction of raw sugar from sugar beet, with the addition of defecation lime was studied in a thermobalance coupled with a mass spectrometer. The beet pulp pyrolysis process took place completely at 600 °C, and the resulting char, tar and gas were characterized by higher heating values of 23.9, 21.6 and 7.77 MJ/kg, respectively. The addition of the defecation lime to beet pulp caused both an increase in the char production yield and a decrease in the tar production yield. At the same time, the higher heating value of char and tar decreased along with the increase of defecation lime added to the sample. The deconvolution of derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) curves allowed us to identify the basic components of beet pulp, for which the activation energy by isoconversion method was calculated. The 20 wt.% addition of defecation lime caused an increase of the activation energy by about 18%. Further increase in the defecation lime content resulted in a reduction of activation energy. At the temperature above 600 °C, calcination of calcium carbonate contained in defecation lime occurred. The CO2 produced during calcination process did not cause auto-gasification of char.
Highlights
In production processes, there is continuing discussion about “circular economy”, which involves creating a closed-loop system
The beet pulp is mainly composed of carbohydrates such as pectin, hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin, whereas defecation lime consists mostly of calcium bicarbonate
The beet pulp from the sugar industry is a good substrate for the pyrolysis process due to its chemical composition, which allows the process to be carried out below 600 °C
Summary
There is continuing discussion about “circular economy”, which involves creating a closed-loop system. Waste in such a process is treated as a substrate for the subsequent processes. The process of transforming waste into valuable products can be carried out using biochemical and thermochemical processes. Thermochemical processes are shorter and almost completely utilize biomass components. They are less sensible for changeable biomass compositions and do not require careful control of microorganism growth conditions in the bioreactor. Only the pyrolysis process allows one to obtain products (char and tar) that can be stored for the longest time and transported.
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