Production of bio-oil via fast pyrolysis of agricultural residues from cassava plantations in a fluidised-bed reactor with a hot vapour filtration unit

This article reports experimental results on fast pyrolysis of agricultural residues from cassava plantations, namely cassava rhizome (CR) and cassava stalk (CS), in a fluidised-bed fast pyrolysis reactor unit incorporated with a hot vapour filter. The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of reaction temperatures, biomass particle size and the use of simple hot vapour filtration on pyrolysis product yields and properties. Results showed that the optimum pyrolysis temperatures for CR and CS were 475 C and 469 degrees C. which gave maximum bio-oil yields of 69.1 wt% and 61.4 wt% on dry biomass basis, respectively. The optimum particle size for bio-oil production in this study was 250-425 mu m. The use of the hot filter led to a reduction of 6-7 wt% of bio-oil yield. Nevertheless, the filtered bio-oils appeared to have a better quality in terms of initial viscosity, solids content, ash content and stability. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.