Thermochemical Conversion of Sugarcane Bagasse into Bio-Crude Oils by Fluidized-Bed Pyrolysis Technology

Abstract

Thermochemical conversion of sugarcane bagasse into bio-crude oils by fluidized-bed reactor has been taken into consideration in this study. The bagasse in particle form was pyrolyzed in an externally heated 7cm diameter and 37.5cm high fluidized-bed reactor with nitrogen as a carrier gas. The reactor chamber and gas-preheater were heated by means of a renewable energy biomass source cylindrical heater. At a reactor bed temperature of 450°C for a feed particle size of 420-600µm and at a gas flow rate of 30 l/min, an oil yield of 48wt% of dry feed was obtained. The pyrolysis process temperature was found to have influenced on the product yields. Characterization of the whole pyrolysis liquids obtained at optimum operating conditions has been carried out including physical properties, elemental analyses, GCV, FT-IR, and 1H NMR analysis. The results show that pyrolysis of sugarcane bagasse waste is a good option for producing bio-crude oils to be used as alternative to petroleum fuels and valuable chemical feedstocks.