Economic trends for temperature of sugarcane bagasse pyrolysis

This work examines some aspects of sugarcane bagasse pyrolysis. Fixed bed pyrolysis was performed varying the final process temperature. Product yields and the variation of quality properties (calorific values) of bio-oil, biochar, and non-condensable gas were investigated. A mathematical model to simulate the trend of temperature that maximizes a marginal gain was developed considering the regression equations for yields and prices of products (related to market prices and calorific value of conventional fuels) and for the amount of biomass used to supply energy to the process. Two methodologies were adopted to calculate the optimum process temperature. The results showed very close temperatures (600 and 602 degrees C) for the best performing simulations of endogenous and fixed prices methods, with little difference between the yields of products, but with good variation between the marginal gains ($124.9/tonne and $129.8/tonne). Finally, the results of endogenous prices method for the fixed bed reactor were compared to the vacuum and fast pyrolysis reactors.