Catalytic pyrolysis of agricultural waste by waste eggs shell

Abstract

Nowdays, Malaysia is the major producer of palm oil. Demanding for palm oil has increased from industry for the production of oil products. Palm shell is one of the products from the palm oil plantation that can give adverse effect to the environment. Due to the increasing of wastes, the pyrolysis technique has been used to reduce and control the pollution. The objectives of this study were to investigate the potential used of waste eggs shell as catalyst in pyrolysis process, to determine the effect of pyrolysis product with various pyrolysis parameters (temperature, heating rate and biomass size) and to determine the effect of catalyst on bio oil production. The used of eggs shell in this study can reduce the cost. The eggs shells were used as a catalyst also to produce high amount of product yield. The sample was characterized by using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The characterization using XRF shows the eggs shell give the great value after calcination while using TGA it shows the good decomposition of hemicellulose that prove the palm shell is suitable for pyrolysis process. The products were obtained from the various temperature, heating rate and biomass sizes. The maximum bio oil obtained in this study at temperature of 450°C, heating rate 50 °C/min and biomass size 425 μm. The highest percentage of bio oil product yield was 65.67%. The pyrolysis products were characterized by using Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR). The results showed that the bio oil was highly oxygenated containing based compounds with a high fraction of phenol. Therefore, the high oxygenated of bio oil can be upgraded in order to raise the heating values before it can be used for fuel industries.