Pyrolysis of cassava peel in a fluidized bed reactor
- Publication Type
- Poster
- Authors
- Latif, S; Funke, A; Müller, J
- Year of publication
- 2016
- Conference name
- 12th RRB 2016
- Conference location
- Ghent, Belgium
- Conference date
- 30 May - 1 June 2016
- Keywords
- bio-oil, cassava peel, Charcoal, condensate, fast pyrolysis
Cassava is considered as a 21st century crop because it responds positively to the global economy trends and climate change challenges. Cassava is grown nearly in 105 countries and is a staple food for one billion people. Cassava peel is one of the main waste by-products of cassava root processing which cause severe environmental problems. However, with the help of modern thermochemical conversion technologies this huge biomass can be converted into bio-oil which can serve as a source of energy as well as platform chemicals.
In this study, dried cassava peel from Tanzania were characterized and evaluated for fast pyrolysis regarding feasibility and bio-oil yields. Volatile matter, fixed carbon, moisture, and ash contents in cassava peel were 74.7%, 12.1%, 6.8% and 6.4%, respectively. Higher heating value of the cassava peel was 16.25 MJ/kg. CHNS analysis of cassava peel revealed carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur contents of 41.9%, 5.9%, 1.1%, and 0.1%, respectively while the chlorine content was found to be 1.59 g/kg.
Fast pyrolysis experiments were conducted in a bench-scale fluidized bed reactor (FBR) with 4 cm diameter and 30 cm height to evaluate the potential of cassava peel to produce bio-oil (as shown in the Fig. 1). Heated nitrogen gas was injected at 530 °C with 750l/h flow rate while the feeding rate of cassava peel was 100g/h. FBR was equipped with a heated cyclone for particle removal, electric precipitator and two cooling traps for the separation of biochar, aqueous condensate, organic condensate and gas. Fast pyrolysis of cassava peel produced an average yield of 34%, 14%, 21%, and 30% for char, aqueous condensate, organic condensate and gas, respectively. During these experiments, cassava peel was not found to be a good feedstock for FBR due to very high char yield and low yield of organic liquids/ bio-oil. However, cassava peel after starch extraction can be suitable for FBR.