Co-pyrolysis of rice straw and water hyacinth: Characterization of products, yields and biomass interaction effect

Abstract

Co-pyrolysis of biomass with abundantly available materials could be an economical method for production of bio-fuels. Pyrolysis behavior of rice straw (RS) and water hyacinth (WH) were carried out in fixed bed reactor at temperature ranging from 300 to 450 °C at a heating rate of 20 °C/min. Co-pyrolysis of biomass with different reaction mixture were carried out at optimum condition 400 °C. The maximum liquid product yields for the pyrolysis of RS and WH obtained were 28.2 wt% and 24.7 wt%, respectively, whereas the maximum liquid product yield for RS+WH co-pyrolysis was 44.4 wt% at 400 °C with 5: 5 biomass mixture ratio. The bio-oils obtained from pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis was analyzed by using GC-MS, FT-IR, 1H NMR. The results of GC-MS and FT-IR analysis confirmed the interaction between RS and water hyacinth during co-pyrolysis, which resulted into increases the number of compounds and compound selectivity. The intensity of the peak enhanced at 1633 cm−1 in the case of bio-char due to an increase in the amount of aromatic carbon and decreased cellulose and hemicellulose contents in the biomass. This work aimed to summarize research progress on co-pyrolysis as well as their benefits on enhancement of bio-oils derived from biomass.