A Thermodynamic Study of Rice Husk (Oryza Sativa) Pyrolysis
Adewale George Adeniyi 1 * , Temitope Elizabeth Odetoye 1, James Titiloye 2, Joshua O. Ighalo 1
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1 Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, P. M. B. 1515, NIGERIA2 Department of Chemical and Biological Process Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UNITED KINGDOM* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the major agricultural products of tropical West Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. In this study ASPEN plus V8.8 was used to develop a thermodynamic model for the pyrolysis of rice husk. The model was validated and found to be accurate especially on the domain of oil and gas yields. It was used to study the effect of temperature on the product yield and oil composition. The fluid products increase with temperature and an optimum of 60% can be obtained from rice husk. The optimum oil yield was 44.2% obtained at 400°C. The synthesis gas was composed basically of hydrogen gas, methane and traces of higher hydrocarbons, the char consisted of carbon and silicon oxide ash while the oil was made-up of acidic organic compounds, aldehydes, pyrolytic water and others. At 600°C, the predictions revealed an oil composition of 84.7% acids, 7.9% pyrolytic water, 7.42% aldehyde and traces of alcohol and other compounds. The results from the thermodynamic predictions showed that rice husk is an excellent feedstock for the biofuels production via the thermo-chemical energy conversion route. The study has provided a useful framework for proper comparisons of the energy potential between different biomass feedstock.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EUR J SUSTAIN DEV RES, 2019, Volume 3, Issue 4, Article No: em0094

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejosdr/5830

Publication date: 29 Jun 2019

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Article Downloads: 2445

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