Effects of Biomass Types, Biomass Pretreatment, and Pyrolysis Temperature on Pyrolytic Product Yields

Main Article Content

Piyachat Wattanachai*

Abstract

This research studied the effects of temperatures on decomposition of fast biomass pyrolysis as well as the effects of biomass compositions on the quantity of pyrolytic products. The biomass used were sawdust, unwashed sugar cane bagasse, and washed bagasse (with warm water). The biomass particle sizes were less than 0.425 mm and the pyrolysis process was a continuous process with feeding time around 30-45 minutes. The temperatures studied here were in the range of 450-600oC. The preliminary study of the decomposition of these biomass were obtained by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the results showed that the decomposition temperatures of the three biomass are similar and in a narrow range of 272-373oC. The lowest decomposition temperature of the unwashed-bagasse might be due to the highest amount of hemicelluloses from sugar. On the other hand, sawdust which has the highest amount of cellulose decomposes at the highest temperature. As the pyrolysis temperature increases, the amount of ash decreases while the amount of gas product increases. The highest quantity of bio-oil was achieved at the temperature of 500oC. Among the three biomass, it is likely that unwashed-bagasse results in the highest bio-oil and hence, the lowest amount of gas products. According to GC investigation, it can be observed that the majority of the gas product are methane (60-70%) and ethane (20-30%).


Keywords: pyrolysis, renewable energy, sawdust, sugar cane bagasse


E-mail: piyachat.a@buu.ac.th

Article Details

Section
Special Section

References

[1] Begum, B. A., Paul, S. K, Hossain, M. D., Biswas, S. K., and Hopke, P. K., 2009. Indoor air pollution from particulate matter emissions in different households in rural areas of Bangladesh. Building and Environment, 44, 898–903.
[2] Gadde, B., Bonnet, S., Menke, C., and Gariviat, S., 2009. Air pollutant emissions from rice straw open field burning in India, Thailand, and the Philippines. Environmental Pollution, 157, 1554-1558.
[3] Bouallagui, H., Torrijos, M., Godon, J. J., Moletta, R., Ben Cheikh, R., Touhami, Y., Delgenes, J. P., Hamdi, M., 2004. Two-phases anaerobic digestion from fruit and vegetable wastes: bioreactors performance. Biochemical Engineering Journal, 21, 193-197.
[4] Seppälä, M., Paavola, T., Lehtomäki, A., and Rintala, J., 2009. Biogas production from boreal herbaceous grasses – Specific methane yield and methane yield per hectare. Bioresource Technology, 100, 2952-2958.
[5] Steinbusch, K. J. J., Arvaniti, E., Hamelers,. H. V. M., and Buisman, C. J. N., 2009. Selective inhibition of methanogenesis to enhance ethanol and n-butyrate production through acetate reduction in mixed culture fermentation. Bioresource Technology, 100, 3261-3267.
[6] Valdez-Vazquez, I. and Poggi-Varaldo, H. M., 2009. Hydrogen production by fermentative consortia,” Renewa ble and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 13, 1000-1013.
[7] Antolín, G., Tinaut, F. V., Briceño, Y., Castaño, V., Pérez, C., and Ramírez, A. I., 2002. Optimisation of biodiesel production by sunflower oil transesterification. Bioresource Technology, 83, 111-114.
[8] Lang., X., Dalai, A. K., Bakhshi, N. N., Reaney, M. J., and Hertz, B. P., 2001. Preparation and characterization of bio-diesels from various bio-oils. Bioresource Technology, 80, 53-62.
[9] Garcia-Perez, M., Wang, S., Shen, J., Rhodes, M., Lee, W. J., and Li, C.-Z., 2008. Effects of Temperature on the Formation of Lignin-Derived Oligomers during the Fast Pyrolysis of Mallee Woody Biomass. Energy Fuel.,. 22, 2022-2032.
[10] Bridgewater, A. V. and Peacocke, G. V. C., 2000. Fast pyrolysis for biomass. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews., 4, 1-73.
[11] Badger, P. C. and Fransham, P., 2006. Use of mobile fast pyrolysis plants to densify biomass and reduce biomass handling costs- A preliminary assessment. Biomass and Bioenergy, 30, 321-325.
[12] Xuan, J., Leung, M. K. H., Leung, D. Y. C., and Ni, M., 2009. A review of biomass-derived fuel processors for fuel cell systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 13, 1301-1313.
[13] Garcia, L., French, R., Czernik, S., and Chornet, E., 2000. Catalytic steam reforming of bio-oils for the production of hydrogen: effects of catalyst composition. Applied Catalyst A-General, 201, 225-239.
[14] Czernik, S., French, R., Feik, C., and Chornet, E., 2002. Hydrogen by Catalytic Steam Reforming of Liquid Biomass Thermoconversion Processes. Industial Engineering and Chem.ical Research, 41, 4209-4215.
[15] Czernik, S., Evans, R., and French, R., 2007. Hydrogen from biomass-production by steam reforming of biomass pyrolysis oil. Catalysis Today, 129, 265-268.
[16] Demirbaş, A., 2001. Biomass resource facilities and biomass conversion processing for fuels and chemicals. Energy Conversion and Management, 42, 1357-1378.
[17] Mckendry, P., 2002. Energy production from biomass (part 2): conversion technologies. Bioresource Technology, 83, 47-54.
[18] Gross, R., Leach, M., and Bauen, A., 2003. Progress in renewable energy. Environmental International, 29, 105-122.
[19] Campbell, H. W. , and Bridle, T. R. , 1986. Sludge management by thermal conversion to fuels. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 13, 569-574.
[20] Werther J. and Ogada, T., 1999. Sewage sludge combustion. Progress in Energy and Combustion., 25,. 55-116.