Py-GC/MS and slow pyrolysis of tamarind seed husk

Tamarind seed husk biomass has been explored to study its slow pyrolysis behaviour and potential for bio-oil and biochar production. No study has been reported on the slow pyrolysis of seed husk of tamarind with detailed characterisation of pyrolysis products and in-depth investigations into the breaking pathways using Py-GC/MS. The slow pyrolysis was conducted in a lab-scale glass tubular reactor from 300 to 450 ℃ at a heating rate of 10 ℃/min in a nitrogen atmosphere. An optimised quantity of bio-oil (maximum yield: 38.8 wt.%) was obtained at 400 ℃ at a conversion of 67.1 wt.%, and biochar yield was 32.9 wt.% from slow pyrolysis. Different characterisation techniques were used for slow pyrolysis bio-oil and biochar analysis, such as GC–MS, FTIR, ¹HNMR, XRD, SEM and proximate analysis. GC–MS analysis indicated the phenolic-rich nature of the bio-oil with various functionalities. However, more profound insights into its decomposition pattern have been provided using flash pyrolysis via an analytical tool, i.e., Py-GC/MS, which demonstrated breaking patterns of biomass framework and enabled the mechanism to be outlined.