Eastern redcedar (ERC) threatens the survival of crops and species in grassland due to its rapid expansion. ERC expansion also results in risk of wildfires, and loss of cattle forage, wildlife habitat, recreation and water yield. Current approaches for controlling ERC include prescribed burning, herbicides use and mechanical removal. Each of these methods is focused on eradicating ERC. Fast pyrolysis, on the other hand, can thermally convert the solid biomass into a liquid fuel intermediate (bio-oil) to address the environmental issues while simultaneously producing sustainable fuels. In this study, the effects of operation conditions (pyrolysis temperature, gas flow rate and particle size) on the pyrolysis products and bio-oil quality were investigated in lab-scale fluidized-bed and drop tube pyrolyzers. The physicochemical properties of bio-oil were determined in terms of ultimate analysis, water content, acid number, density and viscosity. The chemical compositions of bio-oil were characterized by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Fourier transformation infrared spectrometer (FTIR) was used to analyze the functional groups in pyrolysis oil. The results of drop tube reactor showed low bio-oil yield (up to 27% by weight). Carbon content of the bio-oil obtained increased from 39.8 to 55.36 % by weight with decrease in biomass particle size from 0.4 to 0.2 mm.

Pyrolysis of Eastern Redcedar in fluidized-bed and drop tube reactors for bio-oil production

247th National Meeting (2014)

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