Douglas, Joshua, Dada, Tewodros Kassa, Duan, Alex Xiaofei, and Antunes, Elsa (2023) Sugarcane bagasse pyrolysis for green energy production. In: Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists. pp. 440-450. From: ASSCT 2023: 44th Annual Conference of the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists, 18-21 April 2023, Cairns, QLD, Australia.

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Abstract

Modern life depends on fossil fuels, an unrenewable resource, continually being depleted. As a result, developing viable alternatives is necessary. Pyrolysis, a thermochemical process using high temperatures to decompose organic matter in the absence of oxygen, has been highlighted as a possible solution. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of particle size, peak temperature and the addition of the Cu-SrO/ZSM-5 catalyst, on the quality of bio-oil produced from sugarcane bagasse feedstock. The bagasse was sieve-separated into four size classes: <425 μm, <600 μm, <2.36 mm, and Raw (unseparated). Each size fraction was evaluated for baseline physical and chemical properties, along with its applicability to pyrolytic bio-oil generation. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy was performed on the bagasse feedstock to better understand its physical and thermal properties. TGA was used to understand the thermal decomposition of the sugarcane bagasse with and without catalyst influence, as well as to study the bagasse kinetic properties. Pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) was performed on catalytic and non-catalytic samples to evaluate the chemical product distribution. The quality of the bio-oil is based on maximising hydrocarbons and minimising the concentration of oxygenated compounds in the yield. Fibrous rind presents better quality bio-oil, and the inclusion of a catalyst greatly increases the concentration of hydrocarbons. The calorific value of the bio-oil was approximately 34.15 MJ.kg-1 compared to 14.8 ±0.4 MJ.kg-1 of the feedstock bagasse. Therefore, the energy density of the sugarcane bagasse was increased through application of pyrolytic decomposition. This study presents valuable implications on the Australian sugar industry, as a way to both increase the potential profit from bagasse assets, as well as to increase the domestic availability of liquid fuels.

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