Pyrolysis of Cotton Stalk in Fixed Bed Reactor: Effect of Particle Size of Feedstock on Bio-oil Yield

Abstract

Pyrolysis of biomass has attained great attention in the World due to depletion of fossil fuel resources and environmental issues. Two products obtained from the pyrolysis are, solid (char) and liquid (bio-oil). The solid product (char) is analyzed through proximate analysis to evaluate the moisture, ash, volatile contents, and fixed-carbon. The liquid product (bio-oil) obtained from the experiments is analyzed through various tests such as Karl Fischer Titrator, pH meter, Bomb Calorimeter, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The yield of solid char shows an increasing trend with the increase of the particle size whereas the liquid (bio-oil) yield decreases as the size of the feed increases. The present work primarily focuses on pyrolysis of cotton stalk in fixed bed reactor where the effect of feed particle size on yield of bio-oil is studied