Sustainable production of value-added products from fast pyrolysis of palm shell residue in tandem micro-reactor and pilot plant

Abstract

The objective of this research is to develop and utilize bio-oil collected from palm shell through optimization of pyrolysis conditions and quantitative chemical characterization. To recover maximum value-added chemicals, the fast pyrolysis of palm shell was conducted in a tandem micro-reactor followed by the generation of bio-oil in a fluidized bed pilot plant. The experimental results from tandem micro-reactor showed that the high yield of value-added products such as anhydrosugars (levoglucosan, cellobiosan), and aromatics (phenols, guaicol) was obtained at a temperature of 500 degrees C and particle size of 600 gm. The higher temperatures favoured the production of carboxylic acids (acetic acids, propionic acid) and furans (hydroxymethyl furfural, furfural) accompanied by a reduction of aromatics from 6.5 wt % to 3.6 wt%. The maximum bio-oil yield obtained was approximately 60 wt% for a feeding rate of 100 g/h, particle size of 600 gm and temperature of 500 degrees C in the pilot plant. A GC-MS chromatography connected to the system indicated that the pyrolytic gas was predominantly composed of CO2. The experimental results and the subsequent physicochemical characteristics confirmed that the palm residue has the potential to be a good feedstock for pyrolysis process to produce biochemicals or biofuels. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.