Pyrolysis of Aesculus chinensis Bunge Seed with Fe2O3/NiO as nanocatalysts for the production of bio-oil material

• Main Authors: Li, Yiyang, Shaheen, Sabry M., Rinklebe, Jorg, Ma, Nyuk Ling, Yang, Yafeng, Ashraf, Muhammad Aqeel, Chen, Xiangmeng, Peng, Wan-Xi
• Format: Article
• Published: Elsevier 2021
• Subjects: GE Environmental Sciences; TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/34004/
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

The rapid thermal cracking technology of biomass can convert biomass into bio-oil and is beneficial for industrial applications. Agricultural and forestry wastes are important parts of China's energy, and their high-grade utilization is useful to solve the problem of energy shortages and environmental pollution. To the best of our knowledge, the impact of nanocatalysts on converting biowastes for bio-oil has not been studied. Consequently, we examined the production of bio-oil by pyrolysis of Aesculus chinensis Bunge Seed (ACBS) using nanocatalysts (Fe2O3 and NiO catalysts) for the first time. The pyrolysis products of ACBS include 1-hydroxy-2-propanone (3.97%), acetic acid (5.42%), and furfural (0.66%). These chemical components can be recovered for use as chemical feedstock in the form of bio-oil, thus indicating the potential of ACBS as a feedstock to be converted by pyrolysis to produce value-added bio-oil. The Fe2O3 and NiO catalysts enhanced the pyrolysis process, which accelerated the precipitation of gaseous products. The pyrolysis rates of the samples gradually increased at DTGmax, effectively promoting the catalytic cracking of ACBS, which is beneficial to the development and utilization of ACBS to produce high valorization products. Combining ACBS and nanocatalysts can change the development direction of high valorization agricultural and forestry wastes in the future.