Design and Development of Slow Pyrolysis System for the Production of Biochar from Crop Residues

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to design, development of static bed pyrolysis newlinereactor for production of biochar using corn cob as a raw material. The physicochemical newlinecharacterization of biomass and biochar were done by using proximate and ultimate newlineanalysis, TG-DTG analysis, SEM analysis, BET surface area and FTIR spectroscopy at newlinea sophisticated laboratory. newlineThe higher heating value of biochar was observed 29.42 MJ kg-1 whereas for newlineraw biomass it was 16.43 MJ kg-1. The exergy efficiency at 500and#8451; pyrolysis temperature newlinewas found to be 86.36% and its energy efficiency was found to be 88.71 %. newlineOptimization of the pyrolysis parameters (temperature, residence time and particle size) newlinefor a maximum yield, carbon content and surface area was obtained at temperature of newline537.70 °C, residence time of 47.93 min and 9.95 cm particle size respectively. The newlineoptimized value of yield, carbon content and surface area were 37.06%, 80.75% and newline121 m2/g, respectively. The results of ultimate analysis confirmed the elevated the newlinecarbon content approximately to 82% after pyrolysis. The atomic ratio of H:C and O:C newlinewas observed to be 0.44 and 0.13 respectively. According to the stability indicator, as newlineper the results obtained, the produced biochar will remain in stable form for more than newline1000 years. SEM analysis indicated a highly porous structure of biochar, which provide newlinemore space for retention of water, nutrient to the root zone of plants when biochar is newlineused for soil application. Contd......