article · Sustainability
Thermochemical conversion of biomass provides an effective pathway for producing renewable fuels to substitute fossil fuels and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Pyrolysis yields three main products: bio-oil, bio-char, and gas. Slow pyrolysis primarily produces char, whereas fast pyrolysis yields roughly 50 percent bio-oil, and flash pyrolysis delivers an average bio-oil yield of 75 percent in less than one second. Simulation work using ASPEN Plus investigated the influence of operating parameters across temperatures ranging from 400 to 600 degrees Celsius. Introducing catalysts enhances both the yield and quality of bio-oil. An operating temperature of 500 degrees Celsius serves as the optimal condition to maximise bio-oil output. In addition, selecting suitable feedstocks such as rice husk, employing particle sizes of 350 to 800 micrometres, and maintaining low residence times and pressures significantly enhance biofuel production.
Fossil fuel consumption drives greenhouse gas emissions, creating an urgent demand for viable renewable alternatives. Optimising biomass pyrolysis provides a practical route to generate sustainable liquid biofuels and bio-char from agricultural residues. Clarifying exact operating temperatures, feedstock dimensions, and catalyst effects helps process developers design conversion systems that produce higher yields with superior fuel characteristics.
This work informs biofuel producers and chemical plant developers seeking to design or optimise thermochemical conversion facilities. By establishing baseline parameters for temperature, catalyst use, and feedstock preparation using materials like rice husk, the findings support process optimisation. Because the results rely on simulation and operational testing across narrow parameter bands, the work represents early-stage to applied research that requires pilot-scale validation before real-world commercial deployment.
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Bioenergy has emerged to be among the primary choices for the short- and medium-term replacement of fossil fuels and the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The most practical method for transforming biomass into biofuel is thermochemical conversion, which may be broken down into combustion, torrefaction, pyrolysis, hydrothermal liquefaction, and gasification. In this study, producing biofuels using a biomass pyrolysis process was investigated. This study explored the pyrolysis process and operating conditions to optimize the process parameters to maximize the desired product yields and quality. The pyrolysis process produces three main products, which are bio-oil, bio-char, and gas. There are three classifications for the pyrolysis method, with each of them producing a majority of a certain product. First, slow pyrolysis is conducted in the temperature range of 300–950 °C and residence time of 330–550 s. It produces around a 30% oil yield and 35% char yield, and thus, the majority yield of slow pyrolysis is char. Second, fast pyrolysis produces around 50% oil, 20% char, and 30% gas yields with a temperature range of 850–1250 °C and a residence time of 0.5–10 s. The average yield of flash pyrolysis was found to be 75% bio-oil, 12% bio-char, and 15% gas, which is conducted within less than 1 s. It was reported that the pyrolysis of biomass was simulated using ASPEN Plus, where the effects of several parameters, such as the temperature, heating rate, and residence time, on the product yield and composition were investigated. Pyrolysis was performed under different conditions ranging from 400 to 600 °C. The effects of different catalysts on the pyrolysis process were studied. It was found that the addition of a catalyst could increase the yield of bio-oil and improve the quality of the product. The optimal operating condition for the pyrolysis process was determined to be a temperature of 500 °C, which resulted in a higher bio-oil yield. It was found that the biofuel yield was enhanced by selecting appropriate raw materials, such as rice husk, along with the pyrolysis temperature (e.g., 450 °C) and particle size (350–800 µm), and using a low residence time and pressure.
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DOI: 10.3390/su151411238
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