Pyrolysis of rice husk and sawdust for liquid fuel

Article type: Research Article

Authors: ZHU, Xi-feng | ZHENG, Ji-lu | GUO, Qing-xiang | ZHU, Qing-shi

Affiliations: Biomass Clean Energy Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The paper is focused on studying how to convert rice husk and sawdust into liquid fuel. Rice husk, sawdust and their mixture were pyrolyzed at the temperature between 420°C and 540°C, and the main product of liquid fuel was obtained. The experimental result showed that the yield of liquid fuel heavily depended on the kind of feedstock and pyrolysis temperature. In the experiments, the maximum liquid yields for rice husk, sawdust and their mixture were 56% at 465°C, 61% at 490°C and 60% at 475°C respectively. Analysis with GC-MS and other apparatus indicated that the liquid fuel is a complicated organic compound with low caloric value and can be directly used as fuel oil without any up-grading. As a crude oil, the liquid fuel can be refined to be vehicle oil.

Keywords: solid organic waste, rice husk, sawdust, pyrolysis, liquid fuel

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 392-396, 2006