The conversion of biomass into liquid hydrocarbon fuel by two step pyrolysis using cement as catalyst

Water hyacinth was used as biomass and converted into fuel oil and gas using catalytic pyrolysis. Ordinary cement was used as clinker catalyst for the pyrolysis of biomass. The oil was obtained by two step catalytic pyrolysis. The first reaction was found to give maximum product at 400 °C in 60 min. The amount of catalyst was used 30% of the weight of the biomass. The change in nature of product with change in concentration of the catalyst was investigated in terms of the increase in density of the pyrolyzate. The second pyrolysis reaction was carried out under the same conditions. Both reactions were carried out in batch type static reactor. The process was found to give 7% oil and 29% fuel gases in addition to 14% water and 50% char. This product was qualitatively analyzed using GC–MS. The liquid oily product of the two step catalytic pyrolysis was quantitatively analyzed by GC equipped with FID and found it to be rich in hydrocarbons. In addition to hydrocarbons this oil was found to contain various quantities of the carboxylic acids, esters, alcohols, benzene based aromatics and furan based cyclic compounds.

► Conversion of biomass into liquid fuel.
► Cement (clinker) was used as a cheap catalyst.
► Two step pyrolysis in batch type reactor was used.