Production of bio-oil and bio-char from different biomass wastes

Abstract

Environmental pollution is rising due to the excess use of fossil fuels causing severe global warming and acid rains. High market price and the limited amount of fossil fuels have caused energy crises worldwide especially in the underdeveloped countries. The huge amount of biomass organic wastes is being widely used as an alternative feedstock as a potential source for second generation biorefining process. In this research four different biomass wastes are used to investigate the yield of bio-oil and biochar using a conventional pyrolysis method. Rice husk, bagasse, sawdust (Dalbergia sisso Roxb.), and sawdust (Populus caspica Bornm.) are operated in a fixed bed reactor. The rationale of this study is to evaluate the effect of temperature on the yield of bio-oil and biochar at three different temperatures (300 °C, 400 °C, and 500 °C) with heating rate of 3.69 °C/min. The particle size of each biomass waste used was 0.498 mm. Sulfuric acid was used as a catalyst to enhance the rate of reaction. The proximate analysis of biomass wastes was performed in order to evaluate the moisture content, ash content, and volatile matter and fixed carbon. The results showed that with the increase of temperature, the bio-oil yield increases and biochar yield decreases. The highest yield of bio-oil (32.39%) was achieved at 500 °C from bagasse feedstock and the highest yield of biochar (37.50%) was obtained at 300 °C from rice husk feedstock.