Investigation on cotton stalk and bamboo sawdust carbonization for barbecue charcoal preparation

In the paper, biochar preparation from cotton stalk and bamboo sawdust by carbonization process was addressed. The physical and chemical properties and combustion characteristics of the biochar prepared using a tubular fixed bed were investigated. The combustion character index (S), the ignition temperature (Ti) and burnout temperature (Tf) were used to evaluate the combustion characteristics of the biochars. The results indicate that the yield and the volatile yield of the biochar decrease and the fixed carbon yield increases with the increase of the carbonization temperature. The ignition temperature and burnout temperature of the biochar increase and the value of S decreases when the carbonization temperature increases. The biochar produced from cotton stalk shows better combustion characteristics than the bamboo sawdust biochar does. Compared with commercial barbecue charcoal, the cotton stalk biochar produced under 600 °C can be utilized as barbecue charcoal.