Pyrolysis of purun tikus (Eleocharis dulcis): Product distributions and reaction kinetics

Abstract

Pyrolysis of typical wetland biomass, namely purun tikus (Eleocharis dulcis) was experimentally studied herein for the first time. The pyrolysis of purun tikus leaves for bio-oil production was conducted under different reaction temperatures (300, 400, and 500 °C) at fixed pressure and different particle size distributions (0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 mm). Characteristics of bio-oil and product distributions were studied. The bio-oil yield as high as 31% was obtained at 500 °C and 0.6 mm of particle size. Meanwhile, the highest bio-char yield of 62% was obtained at 300 °C and 0.2 mm of particle size. The bio-oil was characterized by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Phenol yield as high as 18.23% was achieved at 500 °C and 0.6 mm of particle size under atmospheric pressure. A reaction model was proposed, and the reaction kinetic parameters by assuming the first-order kinetics were determined. The reaction was observed to follow the Arrhenius behavior, and the kinetic model agreed well with the experimental data.