Effect of Operational Parameters on the Products from Catalytic Pyrolysis of Date Seeds, Wheat Straw, and Corn Cob in Fixed Bed Reactor

- Pakistan depends heavily on imports for its fuel requirements. In this experiment, catalytic pyrolysis of a blend of feedstock's consisting of date seed, wheat straw, and corn cob was conducted in a fixed bed reactor to produce oil that can be used as an alternative fuel. The main focus was to emphasize the outcome of important variables on the produced oil. The effects of operating conditions on the yield of bio-oil were studied by changing temperature (350500 C), heating rate (10, 15, 20 C/min), and particle size (1, 2, 3 mm). Moreover, ZnO was used as a catalyst in the process. First, the thermal degradation of the feedstock was investigated by TGA and DTG analysis at 10 C/min of different particle sizes of 1, 2, and 3mm from a temperature range of 0 to 1000 C. The optimum temperature was found to be 450 C for maximum degradation, and the oil yield was indicated to be around 37%. It was deduced from the experiment that the maximum production of bio-oil was 32.21% at a temperature of 450 C, a particle size of 1mm, and a heating rate of 15 C/min. When using the catalyst under the same operating conditions, the bio-oil production increased to 41.05%. The heating value of the produced oil was 22 MJ/kg compared to low-quality biodiesel oil, which could be used as a fuel.