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A comparison of the pyrolysis of olive kernel biomass in fluidised and fixed bed conditions

Al-Farraji, Abbas, Marsh, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2110-5744 and Steer, Julian Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3003-4768 2017. A comparison of the pyrolysis of olive kernel biomass in fluidised and fixed bed conditions. Waste and Biomass Valorization 8 (4) , pp. 1273-1284. 10.1007/s12649-016-9670-6

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Abstract

The use of thermogravimetric analysis to describe biomass kinetics often uses bench top thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) analysers which are only capable of low heating rates. The aim of this research was to compare experimental fast pyrolysis of Olive kernels in a bespoke laboratory thermogravimetric fluidised bed reactor (TGFBR) characterised by rapid heating rates at high flow rates, compared to a smaller bench scale fixed bed TGA system. The pyrolysis in the TGFBR was analysed by using the isothermal kinetic approach and it was theorised that the pyrolysis decomposition reactions occurred by two mechanisms depending on the temperature, resulting in an activation energy of 67.4 kJ/mol at temperatures below <500 °C and 60.8 kJ/mol at temperatures >500 °C. For comparison, a bench scale TGA was used to look at the thermal behaviour in different fixed bed thermal conditions giving a higher activation energy of 74.4 kJ/mol due to the effect of external particle gas diffusion. The effect of biomass particle size (0.3–4.0 mm) on the conversion of biomass at different temperatures, was investigated between 300 and 660 °C in the TGFBR. The results suggested inhibition of internal gas diffusion was more important at lower temperatures, but in comparison had no significant effect when measured in the fixed bed TGA at lower heating rates. Bench top TGA analysis of pyrolysis is a rapid and valuable method, but is limited by smaller sample sizes and lower heating rates. In comparison, the conditions encountered with the laboratory scale TGFBR are more likely to be relevant to larger scale systems where heat distribution, heat transfer and mass diffusion effects play major roles in the reactivity of biomass.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Engineering
Uncontrolled Keywords: Biomass Pyrolysis Processes Fluidised bed Olive kernel Renewable
Publisher: Springer Verlag
ISSN: 1877-2641
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 9 September 2016
Date of Acceptance: 16 August 2016
Last Modified: 19 Oct 2023 11:59
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/94382

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