Conversion of rice straw and sugarcane bagasse waste to biochar through pyrolysis: influence of feedstock and process conditions
摘要
The thermochemical conversion of agricultural wastes has been carried out to produce biochar. Rice-straw, sugarcane bagasse and their mixture in 1:1 weight ratio were used as feed for pyrolysis experiments carried out in a tube furnace. The processing temperature varied over 300–700°C, heating rate at 10 °C/min. Analysis was carried out to determine elemental composition, higher heating value, thermal stability, functional groups, and surface morphology. The results demonstrated a synergic effect of co-pyrolysis on the mass and energy yield. The highest mass yield of 43.72% was observed in the case of biochar produced from co-pyrolysis of rice-straw and bagasse at 300 °C. The energy yield also increased slightly for the mixed biomass feed, compared to individual rice-straw and bagasse feeds. The pyrolysis of individual biomass showed that bagasse biochar produced at 700 °C had the highest heating value of 23.01 MJ/kg and the lowest mass yield 20.13%. The low pyrolysis temperature was favorable for higher mass yield while higher temperature was favorable for higher energy yield. The thermogravimetric analysis was carried out at a single heating rate — 10 °C/min for rice-straw, bagasse, and mix feeds. The Coats-Redfern model was used to evaluate the activation energy for different feeds.
Graphical Abstract