Kinetic modelling and dynamic sensitivity analysis of a fast pyrolysis fluidised bed reactor for bagasse exploitation

ABSTRACT

This study deals with the comprehensive design of a biomass fast pyrolysis bubbling fluidising bed (BFB) reactor. The solid lignocellulosic residue of sugarcane industries, bagasse, was considered as feedstock. A detailed kinetic model was developed in order to simulate the behaviour of the pyrolyser and the kinetic parameters of bagasse pyrolysis were determined by fitting the model to appropriate experimental data. Subsequently, energy balances were applied in order to calculate the necessary heat of pyrolysis. This is 1.4 MJ per kg of bagasse and it is in accordance with relevant literature data. The model was also validated against respective experimental outcomes and thereby it can be effectively used to simulate the performance of similar fast pyrolysis systems in various process conditions. The conditions that maximise the liquids yield are a temperature of 525 °C and a residence time of 0.5 s. Furthermore, dynamic sensitivity analysis was implemented to determine how sensitive the proposed model is to changes in the value of the kinetic parameters and subsequently to identify the most influential variables. Overall, the current research suggests and investigates the utilisation of a relatively abundant agricultural residue via fast pyrolysis for the production of bio-oil.

KEYWORDS:

• Fast pyrolysis
• bubbling fluidised bed reactor
• bagasse
• kinetic modelling
• simulation
• dynamic sensitivity analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.