Design and Development of Fast Pyrolysis Fluidized Bed Reactor for Bio-oil Production

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Date

2011-12

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Fast pyrolysis of biomass is the most promising technology of converting solid biomass to liquid bio-oil as a renewable substitution of fossil resources in fuel and chemical feed stocks applications. Ethiopia with abundant biomass resources especially from coffee processing industry has the potential to provide an ideal platform for the development of this thermal conversion technology. This thesis was aimed of developing a 145 mm reactor diameter pilot scale fast pyrolysis system with coffee husk as the main feedstock. For detail analysis of the fast pyrolysis system a two-stage fluidized bed reactor was designed based on the fluidization technology with silica sand as the heat carrier to achieve rapid heat transfer required for the reaction. The amount of silica sand required was determined from the hydrodynamics and heat transfer performances. The assembly of the system consists of five main sections. These are the feed hopper, reactor subsystems (reaction chamber, gas-preheating chamber, plenum, and gas distributor plate), cyclone separator and condensation system. Smooth process and substantial bio-oil yields could be achieved for the experiments carried out with the reaction temperature within 300 to500 . But due to lack of appropriate fluidizing medium (lack of continuous gas supply compressor) the maximum gas temperature in the reaction chamber achieved was only 100 . Key Words: Biomass, Fast pyrolysis, Bio-oil

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Keywords

Biomass; Fast pyrolysis; Bio-oil

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