Production and physico-chemical characteristics of pyrolyzed bio-oil derived from cow hooves

Abstract

Pyrolysis is becoming increasingly popular as a method of producing liquid yield from biomass. It has the potential to help build a sustainable renewable fuel market while simultaneously maintaining environmental sustainability. In the present study, cow hooves are pyrolyzed in a fixed-bed batch reactor to investigate product dispersion and determine optimal temperature parameters for optimizing pyrolysis oil yield. Temperature effects on the distribution, elemental content, and physical qualities of major pyrolysis products, such as pyrolysis oil and bio-char, are investigated. At a pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C, the maximum pyrolysis oil production was found to be 50.50 wt%, with the amount of bio-char excluding the gas being 27.20 wt%. A CHNS analyzer, Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy are used to investigate the chemical composition of pyrolysis oil generated under optimal conditions. The fuel properties of the pyrolysis oil are also determined, and it was discovered that it has a favourable fire point, flash point, and pour point. The density of the pyrolysis oil was 1.03 kg/L, the viscosity was 10.2 cSt, and the heating value was 22.7 MJ/kg. The FTIR analysis of the pyrolysis oil reveals that it contains functional groups, such as alkene, carboxylic acid, alcohol, ether, and ketone. According to the GC-MS analysis, the principal components are ester (40%), fatty acids (31%), phenol (3.8%) and p-Cresol (2.9%). Unsaturated fatty acids are abundant in the pyrolysis oil from cow hooves, while saturated fatty acids are in short supply. According to the findings of this study, cow hoof pyrolysis oil has the potential to be used as a source of biodiesel.