Pyrolysis and catalytic processes for bioenergy production from different biomasses

Abstract

Introduction: Sugar cane bagasse and straw are interesting feedstocks for biofuels production or as sources of chemical products. During the fast pyrolysis process, the alkali and alkaline earth metals contained act as catalysts and have great potential to reduce yield and negatively alter the composition of the resulting bio-oil. The bio-oil yield prediction from pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomasses is very important for the industrial application of these processes. The objectives of this work were: to investigate pyrolysis to produce bio-oil, to develop models to predict the performance of a fast pyrolysis plant and bio-oil yield; to obtain an heterogeneous catalyst from the Jatropha curcas shell.

Methods: They were tested four leaching solutions to reduce the biomass ashes mass fraction under different experimental conditions. They were applied different analytical techniques to all biomasses, micro pyrolysis and experiments in different reactors.

Results: The leaching solution nature and its interaction with contact time are very important during demineralization. The acid treatment leads to slight structural changes which influence the thermal degradation. It was developed a model at commercial scale for prediction of the energy performance, economic indicators and environmental impact of a fast pyrolysis plant. Conclusions. The studied leaching conditions have no influence on the pyrolysis vapors composition. The pretreatment with citric acid is effective for demineralization of sugar cane residues in the obtaining of bio-oil or chemicals compounds of commercial value through fast pyrolysis. It was obtained at lab scale an effective heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production. It was developed an artificial neural network model to predict bio-oil yield from pyrolysis with a mean absolute error of 1.72 %.