Fast Pyrolysis of Sugarcane Bagasse in Circulating Fluidized Bed Reactor - Part A: Effect of Hydrodynamics Performance to Bio-Oil Production

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the effects of hydrodynamics behavior of a bed in bio-oil production in a circulating fluidized bed reactor (CFBr) with a fast pyrolysis process. The height and diameter of CFBr were 4.5 meters and 0.1 meters, respectively, while sand particles of 250 microns were used as the bed in the CFBr. The feed rate of the sugarcane bagasse in this experiment was 30 kg/hr. A fast pyrolysis was performed at 440-520º C of reaction temperature, at 5-7 m/s of superficial velocity, and with 0.5 kg and 4.5 kg of bed inventory. The results indicated that the solid re-circulating rate had increased when superficial velocity and bed inventory were increased. The maximum solid re-circulating rate was achieved with 52.48 kg/m2s at 7 m/s of superficial velocity and with 4.5 kg of bed inventory. The highest yields of bio-oil production were created at the maximum solid re-circulating rate for which the maximum value of bio-oil production was 78.07% wt at a reaction temperature of 480 ºC. From the analysis of the effects of the solid re-circulating rates on bio-oil production, it was found that the quantity of bio-oil production had directly varied in accordance with the solid re-circulating rate because during the pyrolysis process, there had been a high heat transfer of bed sand to biomass.