Co-pyrolysis of Coal and Agricultural Waste

Abstract

. Co-utilizing of coal and agricultural plant waste in existing coal based gasification/synthesis installations is widely recognized as a potentially realistic starting scenario for the production of second generation biofuels. Updraft, fixed-bed gasifiers are currently the most commercially successful gasifiers used for coal gasification and are known produce significant quantities of pyrolysis derived tar along with syngas.. In order to investigate the pyrolysis of coal-biomass blends, a pressurized fixed-bed pyrolyzer was employed with coal-biomass blends of 100:0 95:5, 50:50, and 0:100 wt%. Sugarcane bagasse was selected as the biomass feedstock because of its relative prevalence in South Africa. In this study, the effect of adding biomass to coal on the distribution of pyrolysis products were evaluated with attention focused on volatile product yields and composition. It was determined that synergistic or non-additive interactions between biomass and coal impacted on the ability to predict the yields of specific liquid condensate products