Pyrolysis oil is a synthetic fuel produced by heating biomass or waste materials without oxygen at around 500°C. It is a dark liquid with high oxygen content that has around 50-70% of the energy content of petroleum fuels. Pyrolysis oil can be used directly as a fuel in industrial boilers and furnaces. It can also be refined into diesel or other fuels for transportation. Fast pyrolysis in bubbling fluidized bed reactors is the most common production method, yielding around 60-70% liquid bio-oil from the biomass feedstock. Pyrolysis oil is being investigated for combustion in gas turbines and compression ignition engines in addition to direct industrial heating applications.
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Pyrolysis Oil: A Versatile Fuel from Waste Materials
1.
2. Pyrolysis oil, sometimes also known as bio-crude or
bio-oil, is a synthetic fuel under investigation as
substitute for petroleum.
It is obtained by heating
dried biomass without oxygen in a reactor at a
temperature of about 500 °C with subsequent cooling.
Pyrolysis oil is a kind of tar and normally contains
levels of oxygen too high to be considered a
pure hydrocarbon.
3. Pyrolysis oil is a fuel extracted from the waste tyre or waste
plastic.
When the waste plastic/tyre heated the waste materials will
vaporize, the gas can be used as energy. When condensed
the oil gas will become liquid fuel.
The pyrolysis oil has a fuel value that is generally 50-70%
that of petroleum based fuels and can be used as boiler fuel
or upgraded to renewable transportation fuels.
The oil extracted from the waste tyre/plastic by our
pyrolysis plant is mainly applied in the glass factory,
cement factory, boiler, brick factory especially steel factory
and cement factory.
pyrolysis oil is widely used as industrial fuel to substitute
furnace oil or industrial diesel.
4. Pyrolysis
Biomass
(e.g. Meat and Bone Meal)
Pyrolysis (~450 – 500 0C)
Char
(~35 wt%)
Pyrolysis gas
(~65 wt%)
Pyrolysis oil
~85 %-a
condensable
5. Composition of pyrolysis oils
Pyrolysis oil of plant
origin
(e.g. from agricultural
and forestry residues)
C, wt%: 60
H, wt% 7
O, wt% 32
N, wt% 1
-----------------------------------------
Density (kg/dm3): 1.12
Heating value (MJ/kg) 21.3
Pyrolysis oil of animal
origin *
(e.g. from meat and bone
meal (MBM))
C, wt%: 74
H, wt% 12
O, wt% 5
N, wt% 9
-----------------------------------------
Density (kg/dm3): 0.97
Heating value (MJ/kg) 36.5
6. Bio-oil is a complex mixture, which nearly involves
hundreds of compounds, mainly including acids,
alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, sugars, phenols,
phenol derivatives, and so on.
The oil fractions can be separated by the way of
water extraction and obtain water-insoluble and
water-soluble fractions, which can be separated
further
7. BIO-OIL has been produced by fluidized catalytic
cracking method , fluidized-bed , auger reactor ,
fixed-bed reactor , bubbling fluidized-bed reactor etc
Fast pyrolysis: Biomass fast pyrolysis is a novel
and most effective method to convert biomass into
liquid products with yields as high as 80% based on
dry feed uses , which is a rapid thermal
decomposition of organic compounds in the absence
of oxygen to produce liquids, char, and gas.
8. The conditions required for fast pyrolysis process
namely, dry feedstock needed (less than 10%), small
particles (less than 3 mm), short residence times (0.5–
2 s), moderate temperatures (400–500 ℃), rapid
quenching at the end of the process and gave the
typical yields of bio-oil, char and gaseous products of
60–70%, 12–15% and 13–25%, respectively.
9.
10. This process very good in process which can be
operates at atmospheric pressure and modest
temperatures (450 ℃), while yielded high product of
bio-oil exceed to 70 wt%.
However, the fast pyrolysis will be produce high
oxygen and water content of pyrolysis liquids makes
them inferior to conventional hydrocarbon fuels.
Moreover, the phase separation and polymerization of
the liquids and corrosion of containers make storage of
these liquids difficult.
It was mainly consisted of gas-supplying unit, gas pre-
heater, fluidized bed reactor, condenser, filters,
accumulative flow meter and gas collecting unit
11. The bubling fluidized bed reactors have been used in
petroleum and chemical processing for over fifty years
and therefore have a long operating history.
As reactor designs, they are characterized as providing high
heat transfer rates in conjunction with uniform bed
temperatures, both being necessary attributes for fast
pyrolysis.
By selecting the appropriate size for the bed fluidizing
media, the gas flow rate can be established such that
gas/vapor residence time in the freeboard section above the
bed can be set to a desired value, generally between 0.5 and
2.0 s.
12.
13. In principle, the bubbling bed is ‘‘self cleaning’’ which
means that char as a byproduct is carried out of the reactor
with the product gases and vapors.
However, in practice this requires using carefully sized
feedstock with a relatively narrow particle size distribution.
In cases of biomass particles are too large, the remaining
char particles (after pyrolysis) may have too much mass to
be effectively entrained out of the reactor with the carrier
gas and product vapors.
The density of this char will be less than that of the
fluidizing media and, consequently, this char will ‘‘float’’
on top of the bed.
In this location it will not experience enough turbulence
with the bed media to undergo attrition into smaller
particles that will eventually leave the reactor
14. There are some design considerations in bubling fluidized
bed systems such as heat can be applied to the fluid bed in a
number of different ways that offer flexibility for a given
process.
The vapor residence time is controlled by the carrier gas
flow rate. For biomass feed particle size less than 2–3 mm
are needed.
The char produced in this process can catalyze vapor
cracking reactions, so it needs to be removed from the bed
quickly. In addition, the char also can accumulate on top of
the bed if the biomass feed is not sized properly, so
provisions for removing this char may be necessary.
However, this process has problems in scale up purpose
whereas heat transfer to bed at large scales has not been
demonstrated.
15. Pyrolysis oil can be used in several applications to
produce heat, electricity and cooling. Biomass
Technology Group is actively working on, or
involved in development work in the following areas:
(co-) Combustion
Compression-Ignition Engines
Turbine
16. The first large co-combustion test with pyrolysis oil
was carried out in 2003 in cooperation with Electrabel.
In Harculo they own and operate a gas-fired power
station of 350 MWe.
Specifically for this test BTG produced roughly 15 ton
of pyrolysis oil in their pilot plant.
A couple of months after production, the oil was co-
fired in the power plant at a rate of about 1.5 t/hr.
The test was successful and no operational problems
were encountered.
17. Compared to conventional fuels the main difference is
storage, feeding system and burner.
For end-users it is important to get guarantees from the
burner suppliers that the burners are suitable for
pyrolysis oil.
Recently, Stork Thermeq (Netherlands) and Dreizler
(Germany) carried out combustion tests with BTG
pyrolysis oil on their burners.
These test were successful and full commercial
guarantees can be provided.
18. Application of a conventional compression-ignition (CI)
engine (’Diesel engine’) is an efficient way of converting
liquid fuels into power, heat and cooling. In particular for
low capacities (< 1 MWe) it can be economically attractive.
BTG’s development started with a standard CI-engine,
which has been adapted to run on pyrolysis oil.
However, the properties of pyrolysis oil are very different
from diesel, and obviously some modifications are needed
to the engine:
Pyrolysis oil is acidic and therefore all piping and devices
in contact with pyrolysis oil should be corrosion resistant;
Oil contains typically 20-25 wt% water, lubrication is poor
and small particles might be present.
19. The viscosity of pyrolysis oil is higher than of mineral
diesel, and strongly depends on water content and
temperature
Pyrolysis oil is sensitive to re-polymerization, in
particular, if temperature rises above 50-60 °C. Re-
polymerization may result in small particles in the oil
and increase in viscosity
Pyrolysis oil is more difficult to ignite, and higher
temperatures are required at the end of the compression
stage to achieve complete combustion
The Heating Value of pyrolysis oil is about half the
value of diesel
20. The first gas turbine to operate on pyrolysis oil was
developed by Orenda based on a 2.5-MWe Class
GT2500 engine designed and manufactured by
Zorya-Mash-proekt in the Ukraine.
The gas turbine was modified to fire multiple fuels:
pyrolysis oil derived from wood and wood waste
products, ethanol, biodiesel and bituminous crude
oil.
According to publically available data, the turbine
performed very well with 100% pyrolysis oil, under
different load conditions and during fuel switching.
21. Unfortunately, due to limited pyrolysis oil
availability total operating hours are also limited to
a few hundred hours.
In 2010, the Netherlands based company OPRA
BV performed combustion tests with pyrolysis oil
supplied by BTG-BTL. OPRA is supplier of the
robust and reliable 1.8 MWe OP16 gas turbine.
Based on these tests, OPRA is modifying the
combustion chambers of its gas turbine allowing
100 % pyrolysis oil firing
22. Pyrolysis oil is the main product of pyrolysis plant.
It can be extracted from waste tyres, waste plastics,
waste rubbers by pyrolysis plant.
In general, pyrolysis oil is a kind of heavy oil or crude
oil.
According to the SGS report, under the condition of 15
℃, the density of the pyrolysis oil is 0.8205 g/cm3, the
gross calorific value is 44.32 MJ/kg.
23. Because of its high calorific value, so it can be widely
used as industrial fuel to substitute furnace oil or industrial
diesel.
Direct combustion
By direct combustion in a boiler or furnace, pyrolysis oil
can be used to produce heat, such as in steel factory, cement
factory, brick factory and glass factory, etc.
one normal factory can consume 20-30T fuel oil in one day.
Most pyrolysis oil has been sold to steel factories. In some
places like Egypt, they have many cement factories
So the pyrolysis oil is usually used in cement factory.
This is the most simple and straight forward application
combustion of pyrolysis oil in heavy industry.
24. Can be refined into diesel oil
In addition to direct combustion, pyrolysis oil can be
used as a feedstock for refining diesel fuel.
It can be refined into diesel by distillation machine.
Once the pyrolysis oil was refined into diesel
by pyrolysis oil distillation machine, the obtained diesel
can be used in some machinery, such as truck, tractor,
ship, diesel power generation and so on.
25. It is a simple, inexpensive technology for processing a wide
variety of feed stocks.
It reduces waste going to landfill and greenhouse gas
emissions.
It reduces the risk of water pollution.
It has the potential to reduce the country’s dependence on
imported energy resources by generating energy from
domestic resources.
Waste management with the help of modern pyrolysis
technology is inexpensive than disposal to landfills.
The construction of a pyrolysis power plant is a relatively
rapid process.
It creates several new jobs for low-income people based on the
quantities of waste generated in the region, which in turn
provides public health benefits through waste clean up.
26. M. Ringer,V. putsche et.al.,2006. Large scale pyrolysis
oil production : A Technology Assessment and
economic analysis,midwest research institute.
Van de beld b et.al .the use of pyrolysis oil and
pyrolysis oil derived fuels in diesel engine for CHP
applications. Applied energy ,2012.
Bio –oil as a coal substitute in a 600 Mwe power
station ,Bm Wagenaar ,Rh Venderbosch ,W Prins, F
Penninks, 12th Europe conference and technology
exhibition on biomass for energy ,industry and climate
protection ,2002.