Production of bio-oil from xed bed pyrolysis of bagasse

M. Asadullah
*
, M.A. Rahman, M.M. Ali, M.S. Rahman, M.A. Motin,
M.B. Sultan, M.R. Alam
Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
Received 4 October 2006; received in revised form 1 February 2007; accepted 6 February 2007
Available online 7 March 2007
Abstract
The objective of this work was to produce renewable liquid fuel (bio-oil) from locally produced bagasse by pyrolysis in a batch feeding
and xed bed reactor. The experiments were performed at dierent temperatures ranging from 300 to 600 C. The bio-oil was collected
from two condensers of dierent temperatures and dened as oil-1 and oil-2. The maximum total yield of bio-oil was found to be
66.0 wt% based on bagasse. The carbon based non-condensable gases were CO, CO
2
, methane, ethane, ethene, propane and propene.
The density and viscosity of oil-1 were found to be 1130 kg/m
3
and 19.32 centipoise and that were 1050 kg/m
3
and 4.25 centipoise
for oil-2, respectively. The higher heating values (HHV) of them were 17.25 and 19.91 MJ/kg, respectively. The pH of the bio-oils
was found to be around 3.5 and 4.5 for oil-1 and oil-2, respectively. The water, solid and ash contents of oil-1 and oil-2 were determined
and found to be around 15, 0.02 and 0.03 wt% and 11, 0.01 and 0.02 wt%, respectively based on bagasse.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Bagasse; Pyrolysis; Bio-oil
1. Introduction
Energy is the driving force for the development of world
economy. Fossil fuels such as petroleum, coal and natural
gas satisfy the major fraction of total need of worlds
energy. However, the burning of fossil fuels causes green
house gas emission which has many divers role to the envi-
ronment [1]. In addition, the deposition of fossil fuels is
limited. But the demand of energy is growing at high rate
due to the development of all aspects of the world. To meet
the growing demand of energy and to help solve the envi-
ronmental problems, the world trends are moving towards
sustainable energy production, reduced vehicle and indus-
trial pollution, green house gas and waste minimization
and distributed electricity generation. Biomass energy
which is renewable in nature has a role to play in each
one of these energy and environmental concern [2,3].
Various types of biomasses such as agricultural residues,
forestry products and city wastes are abundantly available in
the world, whichcanbe usedfor energy productioninseveral
ways from old direct burning to modern gasication and
pyrolysis. The solidbiomass canbe convertedtothe combus-
tible liquid usually termed as bio-oil by pyrolysis and to the
combustible gases by gasication. The liquid and gas prod-
ucts can be used in engine and turbine for power generation.
The gasication of biomass for power generation has some
disadvantages such as it needs coupling between gasication
and power generation units and the diculty of storage,
transportation and handling of gaseous fuels.
Liquid fuel (bio-oil) has some advantages in transport,
storage, combustion, retrotting and exibility in produc-
tion and marketing [4]. The bio-oil is a mixture of about
200 types of major and minor organic compounds and this
can be used as a source of some pure chemicals such as
alcohol, phenol, aldehyde, organic acids, etc. [5]. As a fuel
it can be directly used in engine, turbine and furnace with
0016-2361/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2007.02.007
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +880 721 750041x4106; fax: +880 721
750064.
E-mail addresses: asad@ru.ac.bd, asadullah8666@yahoo.com (M.
Asadullah).
www.fuelrst.com
Fuel 86 (2007) 25142520
some modication of equipment [6]. Work to date gives
strong encouragement to believe that a diesel engine can
be relatively easily modied to run on 95% crude pyrolysis
oil (by energy content) with no deterioration in output or
rating [7]. A 250 kW diesel engine has been modied to
operate in dual fuel mode utilizing crude pyrolysis liquid
as the main fuel supplemented by a pilot diesel fuel to pro-
vide a source of ignition. Nearly 200 h of operation have
been achieved [7]. Fuel controlling in the combustion pro-
cess is the most important factor for stable operation of
engine and this is easier in the case of liquid fuels.
The agro-based biomass is usually produced at the rural
area where a large scale pyrolysis plant can be installed.
Due to the decoupling nature of the pyrolysis plant, the
bio-oil based small scale power generation plant can be
installed in the remote area where the bio-oil can be sup-
plied and this is one of the most important advantages of
biomass pyrolysis for liquid production [8]. By this way
the agro-based biomass can eciently be used for energy
production. The by-products of the pyrolysis plant are
burnable gas and char. These char and gas products can
be burnt for pyrolysis reactor heating, thereby reducing
the additional production cost for heating system.
About 7.3 million metric tons of can sugar is produced
per year in Bangladesh. With sugar, about 21 million met-
ric tons bagasse is produced as by-product per year. A part
of the bagasse is used for steam power generation inside the
sugar industry for self use and rest of the bagasse is using
for energy in unorganized sectors [9]. In both of the cases
the heat is produced by combusting the bagasse. Due to
the variation of geographic and climate conditions at the
dierent places on the earth, the physical characteristics
and chemical composition of the bagasse can be varied in
a great extent. However, there is not a single report on
the characterization and utilization of the Bangladesh
based bagasse for pyrolysis to produce bio-oil. This paper
contributed to the characterization of bagasse, its pyrolysis
for bio-oil production and characterization of bio-oil.
2. Experimental
2.1. Feed stock preparation
The raw bagasse obtained from the outlet of the sugar
industries usually contains moisture more than 10 wt%.
However, the higher moisture content in the feed stock
yields in higher water content bio-oil. Thus, prior to the
pyrolysis of bagasse it was dried in the sunlight to reduce
the moisture content less than 10 wt%. Then the bagasse
was crushed with a crushing machine to about 0.5
1.0 mm in particle size. The properties as well as ultimate
and proximate analyses of bagasse were carried out and
summarized in Table 1.
2.2. Pyrolysis procedure
For the production of bio-oil the bagasse has been pyro-
lized in a laboratory scale xed bed reactor. A conceptual
design of the process is shown in Fig. 1. The reactor is
made of stainless steel with the dimension of 50 cm height
and 10 cm i.d. About 200 g of bagasse was fed in a batch in
the reactor. The reactor was set vertically and N
2
gas was
introduced inside the reactor at the rate of 200 ml/min
from the bottom and passed through the top of the reactor.
The ow of nitrogen replaces the air from the reactor and
permits the pyrolysis reaction under anaerobic condition.
The vapor as well as gases formed from the pyrolysis of
the bagasse inside the reactor ows out along with N
2
from
the top of the reactor. The gas mixture was passed through
two condensers. The rst condenser was cooled with the
ow of tap water and by which the vapour temperature
was reduced to around 60 C. The second condenser was
cooled with the circulation of ice water mixed with NaCl
Nomenclature
HHV high heating value
i.d. internal diameter
g coecient of viscosity
p hydrostatic pressure dierence
r radius of capillary tube of viscometer
t time of falling of liquid in viscometer
l length of capillary tube
v volume of liquid
g gravitational force
FID ame ionization detector
TCD thermal conductance detector
TGA thermogravimetric analysis
oil-1 bio-oil in rst condenser
oil-2 bio-oil in second condenser
Table 1
Proximate and ultimate analyses of dierent biomasses
Properties
Moisture content (wt%) 4
Particle size (mm) 0.51.0
Density (dry powder) (g/cc) 0.12
Heat value (HHV) (MJ/kg) 19.2
Proximate analysis
Volatile fraction (wt%) 6870
Fixed carbon (wt%) 28.730.7
Ash content (wt%) 1.26
Ultimate analysis (dry basis wt%)
C 48.58
H 5.97
O 38.94
N 0.20
Cl 0.05
S 0.05
M. Asadullah et al. / Fuel 86 (2007) 25142520 2515
by means of a small pump, thereby reducing the tempera-
ture to around 5 C. No vapour was visually escaped
from the second condenser. The liquid products from the
rst condenser and second condenser were collected in con-
ical asks tted to the condensers. The non-condensable
gas was collected in a gas bag.
The yield of bio-oil based on weight ratio was calculated
by (the amount of bio-oil collected for a certain batch/total
amount of bagasse in that batch) 100. The conversion of
bagasse to gas was calculated by (the amount of carbon
based gas collected in a gas bag for a certain batch/total
feeding of bagasse for that batch) 100. The char pro-
duced was remained in the reactor and collected after com-
pleting the pyrolysis reaction. The char yield was calculated
by (the amount of char collected for a certain batch/total
amount of bagasse in that batch) 100.
2.3. Characterization of bio-oil
The density, viscosity, pH value, heating value, water
content, solid content, lignin content and ash content of
crude bio-oil were measured. The density was measured
with a density measurement bottle. Viscosity of a liquid
is the measure of its internal friction which resists the ow
of the uid. The viscosity of bio-oil was measured accord-
ing to the ASTM D 445 using the following equation:
g pPr
4
t=8lv phqgr
4
t=8lv 10
where g is the viscosity (dynes/cm
2
or poise), v is the vol-
ume of liquid (c.c.), t is the liquid owing time (s), r is
the radius of narrow tube (cm), l is the length of narrow
tube (cm).
The pH was measured with a digital pH meter (Hanna,
Model HI 8424). Caloric value of bio-oil was measured
by means of an oxygen bomb calorimeter. Water content in
the bio-oil was measured by Karl Fischer titrimetric
method. The measured sample was titrated with Karl
Fischer reagent. When all of the water has been consumed
in the Karl Fischer reagent the end point of the solution
was signaled by the appearance of a slight excess of the pyr-
idine iodine complex. It was detected by brown color,
which is intense enough for a visual end point. The color
change was observed from the yellow of the reaction prod-
ucts to the brown of the excess reagent. The amount of
water in the sample was calculated as 1 ml Karl Fischer
reagent = 3.5 mg water.
The solids content in the pyrolysis oil were measured as
ethanol insoluble portion. A certain amount of oil was
weighed (2550 g) and dripped into a beaker containing
250500 ml ethanol solvent and agitated by magnetic stir-
rer. The solution was then ltered on a lter paper
(0.1 lm pore size) followed by drying. The insoluble por-
tion remained on the dried lter paper was weighed out.
The lignin portion was measured as water insoluble frac-
tion by using phase separation. The acid value of the pyro-
lysis oil was determined by direct titration with standard
KOH solution. Ash content was measured by burning the
Thermocouple
Furnace
Reactor
Condenser, -5
o
C
Condenser, 60
o
C
Gas bag
Oil -1 Oil -2
Ice water
with NaCl
Water
N
2
gas
Fig. 1. Conceptual design for xed bed pyrolysis reactor.
2516 M. Asadullah et al. / Fuel 86 (2007) 25142520
bio-oil sample with supplying excess air in a Mue
furnace.
3. Results and discussion
The physical properties and chemical composition of
feed stock play a major role in the yield and properties of
bio-oil. Therefore, the bagasse which was the feed stock
of this investigation was characterized in view to know
the physical properties and chemical composition. The
results are summarized in Table 1. The green biomass usu-
ally contains about 50 wt% moisture; however, the mois-
ture content in the sun dried biomass varied in the range
of 310 wt%. The moisture content of the sun dried bagasse
was obtained 4 wt% as shown in the thermogravimetric
prole in Fig. 2. The water content in the feed stock
entirely goes to the bio-oil product. For the application
of bio-oil as fuel needs minimum water content. Since the
water content in the bagasse was low, the water content
in the bio-oil seems to be low. The thickness of the particle
has an important role in the surface area per unit weight,
the lower the particle size the higher the surface area which
leads to the high heat transfer rate from the outer surface
to the center of the particles. Thus, the bagasse was crushed
with a crushing machine and the particle size was main-
tained within the range of about 0.51.0 mm size.
The bulk density of dry bagasse was found to be 120 kg/
m
3
. It was measured as the weight of oven-dried bagasse
contained in a unit volume of green bagasse in kg/m
3
.
Available energy content in the unit volume of biomass
must be known for planning a bioenergy project as it
aects the size of plant, the storage area needed and the
transportation arrangements. The density and energy con-
tent in bagasse is comparable with some woody biomass
[11]. It has been found that the bulk density of bagasse
(120 kg/m
3
) was higher than the bulk density of cedar
wood (70 kg/m
3
). Furthermore, the energy content in the
bagasse was 19.2 MJ/kg which was quite comparable with
the energy content of cedar wood 19.1 MJ/kg [11]. This is
one of the clear views that bagasse can be successfully used
for bio-energy plant for bio-oil production.
3.1. Proximate and ultimate analyses
The proximate and ultimate analyses of bagasse were
performed and the results are summarized in Table 1.
The proximate analysis was based on the thermogravimet-
ric analysis (TGA) prole as shown in Fig. 2. About 10 mg
of sample for this analysis was used and heated from room
temperature to 900 C at the rate of 10 C/min under the
ow of N
2
at the rate of 200 ml/min. From the gure it
can be clearly seen that the volatile fraction of bagasse until
around 400 C was 6870 wt% (dm), the xed carbon was
2729 wt% (dm). The rest 3 wt% (dm) was ash content in
the bagasse. These values are slightly dierent from the
reported results [12]. The volatile materials mainly derived
from the cellulose and hemicellulose which was likely to be
converted to bio-oil in pyrolysis. The carbon which con-
verted to char or other solid carbonaceous materials was
called the xed carbon. This carbon was mainly derived
from the lignin in the bagasse. The xed carbon is dicult
to vaporize at pyrolysis temperature around 500 C. From
Fig. 2 it is seen that the xed carbon does not evaporate
even at around 1000 C. The xed carbon was actually
formed the char in the pyrolysis reaction. This results
reveal that the higher the volatile content the higher the
bio-oil yield from the pyrolysis of bagasse. In comparison
the volatile content in bagasse was higher than many other
agricultural residues and forestry products [13]. In addi-
tion, since bagasse contains very small amount of ash [14]
comparing with other agricultural biomass such as rice
straw (22.6 wt% ash) [13] and other poisonous component
such as sulfur, it can be considered as a suitable feed stock
for low temperature pyrolysis to produce bio-oil. From the
ultimate analysis it has been found that the bagasse con-
tains 48.58% C, 5.97% H, 38.94% O, 0.20% N, 0.05% Cl
and 0.05% S. Carbon content in bagasse was much higher
than rice straw [13].
3.2. Pyrolysis of biomass
About 200 gm of bagasse was fed in the reactor. The
temperature was increased at the rate of 50 C/min. When
the reactor temperature crossed 300 C, the pyrolysis reac-
tion started and a thick white smoke was observed in two
liquid collectors. The pyrolysis reaction was continued till
the vapour was produced at dierent temperatures. Ini-
tially a sample experiment was performed at 500 C. The
bio-oil collectors were connected to two long condensers.
It was observed visually that no smoke (or aerosols) was
escaped from the second condenser.
The product distribution of bagasse pyrolysis at 500 C
is presented in Table 2. Bio-oil collected in the rst collec-
tor was dened as oil-1 and that in the second collector as
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Temperature
o
C
W
e
i
g
h
t

l
o
s
s
,

%
Fig. 2. TGA prole of bagasse under nitrogen atmosphere.
M. Asadullah et al. / Fuel 86 (2007) 25142520 2517
oil-2. The yield of oil-1 in the rst collector was 52.0% (on
bagasse basis) and the yield of oil-2 in the second collector
was 14.0%. The total of 66.0% bio-oil yield has been
achieved. The oil-1 was more viscous than oil-2.
The carbon based non-condensable gas was the mixture
of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, ethane,
ethene, propane, propene, etc. But the concentration of
ethane, ethene, propane, propene was much smaller than
methane. These gases were identied by gas chromato-
graph equipped with ame ionization detector (FID).
Small amount of hydrogen was formed which was detected
by TCD gas chromatograph. The gas and char yields were
24.9 and 9.1 wt%.
3.3. Eect of temperature on the product distribution
The pyrolysis of bagasse was performed at dierent tem-
peratures from 300 to 600 C to evaluate the eect of tem-
perature on the product distribution for a certain amount
of bagasse (200 g) pyrolysis (Table 3). In all experiments,
the reactor was kept for a certain length of time after reach-
ing the nal temperature. At low temperature such as
300 C, where the decomposition of bagasse just started
(as shown in TGA prole, Fig. 2) the bio-oil product was
very low both in the rst collector (oil-1, 15.33 wt%) and
in the second one (oil-2, 3.33 wt%). The total bio-oil yield
was 18.66 wt%. The gas yield was only 4.34%. Most of
the carbon in the bagasse was converted to the char at this
temperature. This result is not consistent with TGA prole
as shown in Fig. 2. This can be explained in two ways.
Firstly, in TGA analysis a small amount of bagasse was
heated homogeneously in the TGA furnace so as to pyro-
lyse the total mass suddenly at the pyrolysis temperature
in the small sample bin. Therefore, the chance of char
formation in the sample bin was minimum. On the other
hand, for pyrolysis of 200 g bagasse in the pyrolysis reac-
tor, the heat was supplied from the outer source. So, the
pyrolysis reaction was started from the wall side and most
of the heat was consumed by the endothermic pyrolysis
reaction at the wall side. By this time, the solid of the center
of the reactor was heated very slowly and most of the car-
bon was converted to the char. Secondly, the secondary
cracking reaction of pyrolytic vapor also produces char
and coke like solid carbonaceous materials in the reactor.
However, in the TGA sample bin the possibility of the sec-
ondary cracking of vapor was low due to the rst removal
of vapor from the small bin. As temperature increased the
bio-oil and gas yields increased remarkably so as to
decrease the char yield.
The eect of temperature on the bio-oil yields in both
collectors is shown in Table 3. The yield of oil-1, compar-
atively less volatile, increased until 450 C and then
decreased with increasing temperature. However, in the
second collector the yield of oil-2, comparatively high
volatile, increased with increasing temperature until the
nal experimental temperature. Since the major fraction
of bio-oil was in the rst collector and it was decreased
abruptly above 500 C, the total bio-oil yield was decreased
above 500 C with further increase of temperature. The
decrease of the yield of oil-1 with increasing temperature
was due to the secondary cracking reaction of pyrolytic
vapour to lower molecular weight organic products or
gas products such as CO, CO
2
, CH
4
and many other gas-
eous hydrocarbons. The low molecular weight organic
products are comparatively high volatile and were not
condensed in the rst collector but were condensed in the
second one. This was the reason for increasing the yield
of oil-2 as temperature increased.
The eect of temperature on char yield is also shown in
Table 3. Char yield is a function of temperature. From the
results it can be seen that the char yield decreased suddenly
with increasing temperature from 300 to 450 C and then it
decreased slowly with increasing temperature. At low tem-
perature the secondary cracking and reforming of biomass
derived high molecular weight organic molecules is dicult
[15,16]. These reactions are completely temperature depen-
dent and proceed usually above 400 C [17,18]. And the
thermal cracking smoothly proceeds above 500 C. Thus,
the yield of char in this process was very high at 300 C
where cracking of high molecular weight compounds did
not take place.
3.4. Bio-oil characterization
Bio-oil consists of water and organic compounds. This
liquid is a very complex mixture that contains molecular
Table 2
Product distribution of bagasse pyrolysis
Pyrolysis conditions
Amount of bagasse (g) 200
Temperature (C) 500
Temperature increasing rate (C/min) 50
Nitrogen gas ow rate (ml/min) 200
Pyrolysis products
Bio-oil yield
Oil-1 in rst condenser (g (wt%)) 104.0 (52.0)
Oil-2 in second condenser (g (wt%)) 28.1 (14.0)
Total bio-oil (g (wt%)) 132.1 (66.1)
Char yield (g (wt%)) 49.7 (24.9)
Gas yield (g (wt%)) 18.2 (9.0)
Table 3
Eect of temperature on product distribution of bagasse pyrolysis
Temperature
(C)
Yield of
oil-1
(wt%)
Yield of
oil-2
(wt%)
Total yield
of bio-oil
(wt%)
Char
yield
(wt%)
Gas
yield
(wt%)
300 15.33 3.33 18.66 77.00 4.34
350 44.66 6.66 51.32 43.8 4.87
400 53.33 7.33 60.66 31.93 7.41
450 58.66 6.81 65.47 26.26 8.27
500 52.06 14.07 66.13 24.86 9.01
550 47.30 13.33 60.63 24.66 14.71
600 44.66 14.66 59.52 22.86 17.82
Conditions: amount of bagasse 200 g, nitrogen gas ow 200 ml/min,
heating rate 50 C/min and retention time 1 h.
2518 M. Asadullah et al. / Fuel 86 (2007) 25142520
fragments of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin polymers.
Extensive reviews on the chemical [19] and physical proper-
ties of pyrolysis oils have recently been published [5].
Before using bio-oil as fuels or chemicals it needs to be
characterized. Thus, the bio-oil obtained in this work was
characterized by measuring the density, viscosity, pH, cal-
oric value, water content, solid (char) content, pyrolytic
lignin content and ash content. The results are summarized
in Table 4.
Bio-oil was collected in two condensers at two dierent
temperatures, 60 and 5 C, respectively. Thus, the low
boiling fraction was collected in rst condenser (oil-1)
and high boiling fraction was collected in second condenser
(oil-2). The properties of two dierent fractions are dier-
ent. The organic compounds of low boiling fraction are
highly burnable. Therefore, for fuel application and for
chemicals separation from bio-oils, the fractionation of
bio-oil at dierent temperatures is signicantly important.
The density of bio-oil produced from bagasse was mea-
sured by density measurement bottle at 20 C. Densities
of oil-1 and oil-2 were found to be 1130 and 1050 kg/m
3
,
respectively. These values are higher than that of light fuel
oil which is around 850 kg/m
3
. Unlike hydrocarbon oils,
the higher density of the bio-oils reects the high oxygen
content, rather than a high polycyclic aromatic content.
The viscosity is important in many fuel applications [20].
For oil-1 and oil-2 they were 19 and 4.25 centipoise, respec-
tively at 20 C. The proposed viscosity of biomass derived
light oil is 2.04.3 centipoise and that of medium oil is 6.2
27 centipoise [21]. The viscosities of the experimental
samples are within the range of proposed specication of
biomass pyrolysis liquids.
The bio-oil usually contains some of organic acids such
as formic and acetic acids, which cause the oils to have a
pH of between 3.0 and 4.5. The pH of the bio-oils was
found to be around 3.5 and 4.5 for oil-1 and oil-2, respec-
tively. This pH value is slightly higher than that of wood
pyrolysis liquid (maximum pH 3.7) [22]. This acidity causes
the pyrolysis oils to be corrosive to mild steel, aluminum,
etc. Aldehydes also contribute to the low pH. Thus for
application of bio-oil in the sophisticated engine, it needs
some chemical treatment for lowering the acidity. The
gross caloric value of oil-1 and oil-2 was found to be
17.25 and 19.91 MJ/kg, respectively. The water content
decreases the available energy from the oil. In bio-oil water
was completely miscible in the polar organic compounds.
In oil-1 the water content was higher (15.00 wt%) than that
of oil-2 (11.01 wt%) so as to decrease the caloric value of
oil-1.
The solid content in the bio-oil is dened as the heavy
organic materials which is insoluble in some specic sol-
vents in addition to the actual solids. For this test three sol-
vents were used: ethanol, methanol and acetone. The
solubility of the particle was dependent on the amount of
solvent. Furthermore, the selection of the lter pore size
was to some extent dependent on the particle size distribu-
tion of the liquid. The solid content was found to be
0.02 wt% for oil-1 and 0.01 wt% for oil-2.
The pyrolytic lignin content is the measure of water
insoluble fraction in the bio-oil. It was found to be 3.51
and 1.25 wt% for oil-1 and oil-2, respectively. The acid
value or acid number of the oil was determined by direct
titration with standard KOH solution using phenolphtha-
lein as an indicator. The acid value of the oil-1 was found
to be 137.35 and 117.51 for that of the oil-2, respectively.
Finally, the ash content in the bio-oil was found to be
0.02 and 0.02 wt% for them, respectively.
Bio-oil can be considered a micro-emulsion in which the
continuous phase is an aqueous solution of holocellulose
decomposition products, that stabilizes the discontinuous
phase of pyrolytic lignin macromolecules through mecha-
nisms such as hydrogen bonding. Aging or instability is
believed to result from a breakdown in this emulsion. How-
ever, in our liquid the appearance is still homogeneous
phase. The physical properties are not signicantly chan-
ged within 8 months. However, the chemical analysis is
under investigation.
4. Conclusions
Bio-oil was produced from pyrolysis of bagasse in a
xed bed reactor at dierent temperatures ranging from
300 to 600 C. The bio-oil vapour was condensed in two
condensers at dierent temperatures and the liquid prod-
ucts were dened as oil-1 and oil-2. The maximum total
yield of bio-oil was found to be 66.0 wt%. The carbon
based non-condensable gases were CO, CO
2
, methane, eth-
ane, ethene, propane and propene. The values of density
and viscosity are comparable with the proposed specica-
tion of the various grades of pyrolysis oils. Since bio-oil
contains some organic acids, the pH of the bio-oils was
found to be around 3.5 and 4.5 for oil-1 and oil-2, respec-
tively. The other impurities in the bio-oil produced in this
work are comparable with reported work. Thus, it can be
used as liquid fuel.
Acknowledgements
This research was nancially supported by the Ministry
of Science and Information and Communication Technol-
ogy under the project Pilot Plant Project on the Produc-
Table 4
Physical properties of bio-oil produced from bagasse
Properties Oil-1 Oil-2
Density at 20 C (g/cc) 1.13 1.05
Viscosity, centipoise at 20 C 3.90 2.25
pH 3.50 4.50
Gross caloric value (MJ/kg) 17.25 19.91
Water content (wt%) 15.00 11.00
Char/solid content (wt%) 0.02 0.01
Pyrolytic lignin content (wt%) 3.51 1.25
Acid value (mg KOH/g) 137.35 117.51
Ash content (wt%) 0.03 0.02
M. Asadullah et al. / Fuel 86 (2007) 25142520 2519
tion of Liquid Fuel from Biomass No. MOSICT-SAP-
2005-2006/INT-13.
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