Abstract
This simulation study explores sustainable improvements that could be made to a pine dust pyrolysis system to eliminate total dependence on external electrical energy supply and improve the yield of high-quality dry bio-oil. The components, stoichiometric yield and composition of oil, char and gas were modeled in ChemCAD using data from literature and results from biomass characterization and pyrolysis. A fast pyrolysis regime was used to increase the overall yield of dry oil fraction recovered and the char by-product was utilized to make the system energy self-sufficient. The optimization study focused on the condensation system whose parameters were varied at the provided optimum pyrolysis temperature. The recommended temperature for the primary condenser was 96–110°C which yielded 23.3–29.8 wt% dry oil with 2.4–4.4 wt% water content. The optimum temperature for the secondary condenser was 82°C whose bio-oil (∼2.92 wt%) had a moisture content of 7.5–10 wt% at constant primary condenser temperature between 96–110°C. The third condenser could be operated at ambient temperature. The results were validated using both information reported in literature and results from the previous experimental study. Such a simple model built by careful selection of the model bio-oil components is useful in estimating the optimal parameters for the biomass pyrolysis staged condensation system.
Highlights
General IntroductionThere has been a drive toward higher value conversion alternatives for biomass wastes such as sawmill waste
One of the appealing avenues is the substitution of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in the power generation and marine industries, since pyrolysis oil has compatible properties with the HFO (Kass et al, 2018)
This is akin to the use of the Aspen RYield reactor alone, espoused by Onarheim et al (2015), except that the equilibrium reactor that was used in ChemCAD does not factor in temperature dependence
Summary
General IntroductionThere has been a drive toward higher value conversion alternatives for biomass wastes such as sawmill waste. Pyrolysis has been identified as a low investment technology that is less technically complex than other thermochemical methods and could be a short to medium-term answer to the energy poverty in developing regions like Southern Africa. It has advantages of high efficiency and effective utilization of feedstock over biological. Sustainable Pinedust Pyrolysis Model conversion methods, with high yields of a liquid fuel or intermediate referred to as “bio-oil”. The target for this particular study is lower value applications of bio-oil. The motivation for this study is to provide an alternative power generation source, especially for remote areas detached from the grid, where timber sawmills are mostly located
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