Liquid Oil from Fluized Bed Pyrolysis of Rice Husk Waste and Its Characterization

Abstract

Paddy is grown in most part of the world. About 20% by weight (wt%) of this paddy generates waste known as rice husk. The conversion of solid rice husk into liquid oil by fluidized bed pyrolysis is taken into consideration in this study. The pyrolytic products are oil, char and gas. In the fluidized bed pyrolysis system, rice husk is fed into the pyrolysis reactor in particle form. Silica sand is used as the fluidization medium and gas nitrogen as the carrier gas. The reactor and the preheater are heated be means of electrical ring heaters. The char is corrected in cyclone and the vapors are condensed in condenser and collected in liquid collectors while the gas is flared. At a reactor bed temperature of 450 /span>C for a feed size of up to 1 mm at a fluidization gas flow rate of 21 l/min, an oil yield of 40% by weight (wt%) of dry feed is obtained. The pyrolysis process conditions are found to have influence on the product yields. The oil is characterized by Fourier transform infra-red (FT-ir) spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques along with some physical properties determination.