Energy assessment of pyrolysis products made of different biomass feedstocks

Bc. Karolína Jičínská

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The rapid depletion of fossil fuels reserves and their negative environmental impact lead to use of alternative fuels, where one of renewable and clean energy source is biomass. Biomass has a big potential as it contains carbon and can be processed by thermochemical and biochemical processes into a material with a higher calorific value. One of the thermochemical processes is pyrolysis, which is the process where temperature heats an input material without access of oxygen in order to get three kinds of products such as biooil, biochar and pyrolysis gas. The pyrolysis processes can be divided into several types according to process parameters. Description and summarization of the main pyrolysis reactors, their parameters, technologies as well as products are presented in the literature review of the Master’s Thesis.Interesting input materials (residual biomass) like bamboo chips, coffee ground, medicine residue, mushroom dreg and tea leaves obtained from China were studied in the practical part of this Thesis. These experimental materials were processed in a bench scale pyrolyser under the conditions of slow pyrolysis with temperature 450 °C. The main physical and chemical properties as moisture content, calorific value, content of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen as well as ash content were determined. The quality and suitability of the materials for energy utilization, primarily raw feedstock materials vs produced biochars, were evaluated by confrontation with the current EN and ISO technical standards for solid biofuels, and discussion with the findings of other authors. Results showed that materials after pyrolysis process had lower moisture content, higher calorific value, higher nitrogen and ash content as well as the majority of samples had higher carbon content comparing to the raw materials. As the best material for fuel production was found bamboo chips, followed by coffee ground.

Keywords

Biofuels properties, Biochar, Biooil, China, Pyrolysis technologies, Residual biomass, Termochemical process

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 26. 4. 2019

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Bc. Ing. Tatiana Ivanova, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / Sustainable Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics