THERMOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF COMBUSTIBLES VIA PYROLYSIS USING N2 AS CARRIER GAS

Global warming is a large-scale issue that has led humanity to seek for renewable energy sources. Thermal gasification of biomass is a new technology used to produce clean fuels using biomass as feedstock. The resultant products are renewable neutral carbon fuels. Experimental results obtained from the pyrolysis of sugarcanebagasse (????????1.581????0.671????0.00306????0.00117) carried out in a static batch reactor with nitrogen as carrier gas for temperatures ranging between 400°C and 900°C and a heating rate of 4.30 °C /min ±7.8% are discussed. Sugarcane bagasse samples were thermo-chemically characterized in order to determine thermodynamic properties such as enthalpy of formation, high heating value, empirical formulas of biomass, volatile matter, among others. The chemical formula of the bio-oil was estimated using gas composition, given by a gas analyzer, and atom balance on components (char, gas, and bio-oil). The effect of temperature on both the HHV of the syngas and yield of products, which include, bio-oil, gaseous fuels, and char are discussed in detail. As pyrolysis temperature increases, bio-oil production increases, whereas char and syngas production reduces. Chemical empirical formulas for biomass and volatile matter were ????????1.581????0.671????0.00306????0.00117 and ????????1.807????0.767????0.00349????0.00133 respectively, whereas, the high heating values (DAF basis) of biomass and volatile matter were 18925.08 kJ/kg and 17472.77 kJ/kg, respectively. The average chemical empirical formula of the bio-oil was ????????2.145????0.268????0.268????0.002.