Design Construction And Performance Evaluation Of A Fixed Bed Pyrolysis System

A fixed bed pyrolysis system has been designed and constructed for obtaining liquid fuelfrom palm kernel shell. The major components of the system are: fixed bed reactor andcondensate unit. The palm kernel shell in particle form was pyrolized in an externallyheated 90mm diameter and 360mm high fixed bed reactor. The reactor is heated by meansof a rectangular shape manual forge blower with charcoal as the energy source. Theproducts are char, oil and gas. The parameters varied are feed particle size, reactor bedtemperature and running time. The reactor bed temperature was found to influence theproduct yields. The maximum liquid yield was 38.67wt % at 4500C for a feed particle sizeof 1.18mm with a running time of 95minutes. The maximum char yield was 70.67wt% at5500C for a feed particle size of 5mm with a running time of 120minutes. The calorificvalue of the palm kernel shells (22.81 MJkg-1) and bio-oil (43.19MJkg-1) were determined.The reactor efficiency was evaluated at various temperatures. Maximum efficiency of73.21% indicated that the reactor is efficient enough to produce bio-oil. The bio-oilproducts were analysed by Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectroscopy (FTIR) and GasChromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS). The FTIR analysis showed that the bio-oilwas dominated by phenol and its derivatives. The phenol, 2-methoxy-phenol and 2, 6-dimethoxyl phenol that were identified by GCMS analysis are highly suitable forextraction from bio-oil as value-added chemicals. The highly oxygenated oils need to beupgraded in order to be used in other applications such as transportation fuels

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