29 research outputs found
In-situ upgrading of Napier grass pyrolysis vapour over microporous and hierarchical mesoporous zeolites
This study presents in-situ upgrading of pyrolysis
vapour derived from Napier grass over microporous and
mesoporous ZSM-5 catalysts. It evaluates effect of process
variables such catalyst–biomass ratio and catalyst type in
a vertical fixed bed pyrolysis system at 600 °C, 50 °C/min
under 5 L/min nitrogen flow. Increasing catalyst–biomass
ratio during the catalytic process with microporous structure
reduced production of organic phase bio-oil by approximately
7.0 wt%. Using mesoporous catalyst promoted
nearly 4.0 wt% higher organic yield relative to microporous
catalyst, which translate to only about 3.0 wt% reduction
in organic phase compared to the yield of organic phase
from non-catalytic process. GC–MS analysis of bio-oil
organic phase revealed maximum degree of deoxygenation
of about 36.9% with microporous catalyst compared to
the mesoporous catalysts, which had between 39 and 43%.
Mesoporous catalysts promoted production olefins and
alkanes, normal phenol, monoaromatic hydrocarbons while
microporous catalyst favoured the production of alkenes
and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. There was no significant increase in the production of normal phenols over microporous catalyst due to its inability to transform the methoxyphenols and methoxy aromatics. This study demonstrated that upgrading of Napier grass pyrolysis vapour over mesoporous ZSM-5 produced bio-oil with improved physicochemical properties