Characteristics of bio-oil produced by the pyrolysis of mixed oil shale semi-coke and spent mushroom substrate

- The pyrolysis of mixed shale semi-coke and spent mushroom substrate is studied.
- The existence of shale semi-coke influences yield and characteristics of bio-oil.
- The shale semi-coke mass fraction of 50% is recommended in this work.
- The amount of aliphatic compounds in the obtained bio-oil is increased.

In this work, spent mushroom substrate (SMS) was co-pyrolyzed with oil shale semi-coke (OSS) to investigate the effects of the OSS on yield and chemical compositions of bio-oil product. Oil shale semi-coke was mixed with biomass in the OSS/SMS mass ratios of 0:1, 1:4, 1:1, 4:1 and 1:0. The pyrolysis experiment was carried out by using a lab-scale pyrolysis reactor. The experimental results showed that the addition of the OSS led to an increase of bio-oil yield. The maximum of bio-oil yield was obtained at the OSS/SMS mass ratio of 1:1. The characteristics of the obtained oils were studied by elemental analyzer, FTIR and GC-MS. It was found that the bio-oil obtained from the pyrolysis of mixed SMS and OSS had higher carbon and hydrogen content, lower oxygen content than those produced by the pyrolysis of biomass alone. Moreover, there were more aromatics and aliphatic compounds in the obtained bio-oil product. These variations indicated that the existence of the OSS significantly influenced the chemical compositions of bio-oil.