Experimental Investigation of Fast Pyrolysis of Isoberlina doka-Derived Sawdust for Bio-Oil Production

摘要

Fast pyrolysis is considered an emerging technology for biomass conversion into liquid oil. In this paper, the conversionof waste from Isoberlina doka tree processing into bio-oil using a bench-scale fixed bed reactor with a fluidized behaviorwithin the bed zone has been investigated at temperatures of 400–500 °C and particle size ranges of<0.5 and 0.5–1 mm.Reactor with the total height of 140 mm consisting of three zones with gas inlet diameter of 10 mm, reaction zone diameterof 70 mm, outlet diameter of 15 mm and a coupled detachable inlet with a diameter 15 mm for biomass loading was usedfor experimentation. Nitrogen was used as the carrier gas, and the products were biochar, bio-oil and non-condensable gas.Thermogravimetric and derivative thermal analysis (TG/DTA) was carried out in order to understand the thermal behavior ofwood particles. Bio-oil produced was analyzed using the gas chromatography mass spectrometry and the Fourier transforminfra-red spectrophotometry methodologies. TG/DTA analysis revealed an initial 30.639% mass loss which correlates tohardwood thermal characteristics. Bio-oil yield from bench-scale pyrolysis increased with increasing temperature.Amaximumbio-oil yield of 49.84 wt % was observed at the particle size range of 0.5–1 mm, bed temperature of 500 °C and time of30 min. Volatile generation was at the peak of 54.54% (0.002655 kg/min). However, changes in the chemical compositionand functional groups of bio-oil with temperature of production suited it for different usage purposes.