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Catalytic co‐pyrolysis of Eichhornia Crassipes biomaѕѕ and polyethylene using waste Fe and CaCO 3 catalysts
Author(s) -
Gulab Hussain,
Hussain Khadim,
Malik Shahi,
Hussain Zahid,
Shah Zarbad
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.3489
Subject(s) - catalysis , pyrolysis , chemistry , heat of combustion , polyethylene , chemical engineering , biomass (ecology) , particle size , pyrolysis oil , yield (engineering) , organic chemistry , materials science , nuclear chemistry , metallurgy , engineering , oceanography , combustion , geology
Summary A wild aquatic plant, Eichhornia Crassipes, and polyethylene have been converted into liquid product thermo‐catalytically and cost effectively through co‐pyrolysis using batch steel pyrolyzer. The Fe and CaCO 3 catalysts were obtained as wastes from various mechanical processes. The catalytic process was compared with non‐catalytic pyrolysis. The effect of various reaction conditions was investigated in order to find out the optimized process conditions. It was found that the favorable reaction conditions were 450 °C temperature and 1‐h reaction time at a heating rate of 1 °C/s and 0.4‐mm biomass particle size. The bio‐oil yield was found to be 34.4% and 26.6% using Fe and CaCO 3 respectively with catalysts particle size of 0.4 mm at the optimized reaction conditions and 5 wt% of biomass. The non‐catalytic and catalytic co‐pyrolysis using Fe as catalyst produced 23.9% and 28.7% oil respectively. Thus the efficiency of processes in terms of bio‐oil production was found in order of: Fe > CaCO 3 > non‐catalytic pyrolysis. The GC/MS analysis of n‐hexane extract of bio‐oil shows that Fe catalyst favors formation of aliphatic hydrocarbons while CaCO 3 and non‐catalytic pyrolysis favors formation of aromatic hydrocarbons. Mostly unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbons were formed in case of co‐pyrolysis reactions. The calorific value of bio‐oil was also measured in order to find out the fuel properties of the products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.