Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Impact Of Pretreatment Methods On Fast Pyrolysis Of Biomass, Yash Donepudi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Biomass is considered a renewable source of energy with minimum carbon foot print if managed sustainably. The majority of the worlds energy is spend on transportation, and fast pyrolysis of biomass could be a potential route for production of a sustainable liquid transportation fuel. However, there are several hurdles in the conversion process. This work addresses these hurdles by investigating the impact of several pretreatment methods on fast pyrolysis including thermal pretreatment (torrefaction), comminution/grinding, mineral reduction. The impact of important parameters like heat transfer medium, conversion temperature and particle size were also investigated.

A mild thermal pretreatment of biomass (~10-15% …

Experimental Investigation Of Fast Pyrolysis Of Arundo Donax In A Novel Paddle Reactor, Chintan Desai

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The main objective of this research was to show the effectiveness of a novel paddle reactor for fast pyrolysis and study the effect of biomass particle size and reaction temperature of Arundo Donax a type of energy crop on the bio-oil yields. The novel paddle reactor showed effective mixing and heat transfer which were proved with the help of studying the residence time and the heating characteristics of the system respectively. The effect of different biomass particle sizes on the bio-oil yield was not significant, the bio-oil yield was approximately 50% for all the sizes. For Arundo Donax particle sizes …