The 6th International Conference on Biomass Energy (ICBE2018)

444 / 2018-09-03 06:54:15

Catalytic pyrolysis of chicken-litter biomass using calcium oxide and bio-char catalysts assisted by solar energy

solar fuels, deoxygenation, catalytic pyrolysis, CO2 capture

Plenary track > I.Others

Solar energy can be utilised to provide heat for the thermochemical conversion of biomass, which facilitates social sustainability by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by minimising the use of conventional energy sources for heat supply. In this work, catalysts of calcium oxide (CaO) and chicken-litter derived bio-char were employed to upgrade the gas and liquid bio-oil fuels obtained from solar pyrolysis of chicken-litter waste. The catalysts were loaded in a quartz tube reactor in in-situ and ex-situ modes at different catalyst to biomass ratios in the temperature range of 500–800°C. In both modes it was found that a substantial decrease in CO2 yield accompanied by an increase in the formation of CO and H2 with temperature and catalyst to biomass ratio. The in-situ pyrolysis with 50% CaO loading achieved the maximum CO (63 wt. %) and H2 (14.9 wt. %) yields at 800°C. Similarly, the in-situ pyrolysis with 50% bio-char catalyst generated 60 wt. % CO and 5.2 wt. % H2. The addition of CaO exhibited considerable deoxygenation performance for the fatty acids. The minimum concentrations of fatty acids in the liquid product obtained with 50% CaO in the in-situ and ex-situ pyrolysis were 8.2% and 2.6%, respectively. On the other hand, the addition of bio-char did not show significant deoxygenation difference for either the alcohols or fatty acids in the bio-oil products.