Rapid growth in consumption of fossil fuels and global warming has driven the world towards renewable energy resources. Biomass is one such source which is widely available in nature and economical. Production of biofuels through pyrolysis has achieved great importance over the past few decades because of its practical feasibility and extensive commercial outlook. However, the existence of complex chemical compounds, high water content and low pH value hinder the large-scale application and commercial production of bio-oil to a great extent. Catalytic conversion of biomass stands out to be a unique pathway for production of specific products by minimizing the aforementioned barriers. This study focusses on the utilization of nanosized metal oxide particles as a catalyst for the production of bio-oil from a widely available biomass Delonix regia. The catalysts used for this study were nanoparticles of zinc oxide and titanium oxide and the loading of the catalyst was considered to be 10% with respect to the biomass in equal amounts. The experiments were carried out at a temperature of 600 oC and a pressure of 1 bar using nitrogen as inert medium with a heating rate of 10 oC/min. It has been observed that despite the reduction in the yield of bio-oil there was an improvement in the physiochemical properties of the bio-oil such as pH value, calorific value, density, viscosity, water content as compared to that of the non-catalytic pyrolysis. Thus, the results of this study assure us that utilization of nanosized metal oxide particles as catalyst could serve to be a better pathway for the production of bio-oil which could help in removing the barriers of large-scale production and commercialization of pyrolysis.

Catalytic pyrolysis of Delonix regia using nanosized metal oxide particles

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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