Construction of a Packed-Bed Pyrolysis Reactor For Charcoal Production

Abstract

The paper pivoted on processing forest waste, Austrian Pine, for producing carbon enriched char. A small-packed bed reactor was developed to pyrolysis the processed char. The preparation of feedstock was carried out in an improvised muffle furnace. The following parameters were obtained to determine the potential of pine waste: thermal effectiveness, oil yield, char yield, gas yield, specific biomass consumption, and carbon conversion efficiency of the unit. The absolute increase in the cold gas efficiency of pine needles after torrefaction was 44%. As compared to Acacia wood chips (G30 and G50), a 4.8% rise in the carbon conversion efficiency was seen after thermal pre-treatment of pine needles. However, it was relatively dropped by 2% to the wood pellets. The obtained char yield from torrefied pine needles as to the wood pellets was augmented by 160%. On the contrary, the oil yield derived from torrefied pine pellet was dropped by 65% while comparing it with the wood pellets. The carbon dioxide emission was mitigated by 3.4% after torrefaction of raw pine needles, whereas it was reduced by 11.71% when it was compared with commercial wood pellets. A pronounced rise of 123% in the clean gas production was noticed after the torrefaction of pine needles, while it was 14.96% when it was compared with the wood pellets.