Combination of Woody and Grass type Biomass: Waste Management, Influence of Process Parameters, Yield of Bio-oil by Pyrolysis and its Chromatographic Characterization

Abstract

Due to looming demand for fossil fuels and environmental concerns over global warming, extensive attention has been given on the development of renewable energy. Biomass materials are used since millennia for meeting myriad human needs including energy and chemicals. In this study, co-pyrolysis characteristics of woody and grass type agricultural wastes, namely <em>Borassus flabellifer </em>and <em>Cymbopogon flexuosus</em> were studied in a fixed bed reactor to evaluate their potential use as source of bio-oil. The effects of operating parameters such as temperature, particle size and heating rate were investigated. In this co-pyrolysis process, the maximum yield of pyrolysis bio-oil 47.10 wt% can been obtained under the pyrolysis temperature of 500ºC, 1.0 mm particle size and at the heating rate of 30 ºC/min. The bio-oil product was analyzed for physical, elemental and chemical composition using Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy and gas chromatography (GC).