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Co-pyrolysis of Rice Husk with Underutilized Biomass Species: A Sustainable Route for Production of Precursors for Fuels and Valuable Chemicals

Waste and Biomass Valorization volume 8, pages 911–921 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

In this study, co-pyrolysis of rice husk with underutilized biomass, Napier grass and sago waste was carried out in a fixed bed reactor at 600 °C, 30 °C/min and 5 L/min nitrogen flowrate. Two-phase bio-oil (organic and aqueous) was collected and characterized using standard analytical techniques. 34.13–45.55 wt% total boil-oil yield was recorded using assorted biomass compared to pure risk husk biomass with 31.51 wt% yield. The organic phase consist mainly benzene derivatives with higher proportion in the oil from the co-pyrolysis process relative to the organic phase from the pyrolysis of the individual biomass while the aqueous phase in all cases was predominantly water, acids, ketones, aldehydes, sugars and traces of phenolics. This study has demonstrated a good approach towards increasing valorization of rice husk in a single reaction step for the production of high grade bio-oil, which can be transformed into fuel and valuable chemicals.

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Acknowledgments

The project was supported by the Crops for the Future (CFF) and University of Nottingham under the Grant BioP1-005.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor Darul Eshan, Malaysia

    Isah Yakub Mohammed, Chun Hsion Lim & Hon Loong Lam

  2. Department of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Material Engineering, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor Darul Eshan, Malaysia

    Yousif Abdalla Abakr

  3. Department of Engineering and Mathematics, Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB, UK

    Feroz Kabir Kazi

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 31750, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Tronoh, Malaysia

    Suzana Yusup

  5. Crops for the Future (CFF), The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

    Isah Yakub Mohammed & Chun Hsion Lim

Authors
  1. Isah Yakub Mohammed
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Correspondence to Isah Yakub Mohammed.

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Mohammed, I.Y., Lim, C.H., Kazi, F.K. et al. Co-pyrolysis of Rice Husk with Underutilized Biomass Species: A Sustainable Route for Production of Precursors for Fuels and Valuable Chemicals. Waste Biomass Valor 8, 911–921 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-016-9599-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-016-9599-9

Keywords

  • Rice husk
  • Napier grass
  • Sago waste
  • Co-pyrolysis
  • Bio-oil
  • Characterization