Effect of Process Conditions on Bio-oil Composition and Production from Catalytic Pyrolysis of Water Hyacinth Biomax455;x455;

The Water Hyacinth biomass has been converted into bio-oil using waste Cu and Al catalysts. Parameters like temperature, time and particle sizes of biomass and catalyst were optimized. The temperature was used from 150 to 450 degrees C and the reaction time was in the range of 60-100 min. The amount of catalyst was kept constant as 5 wt% of biomass for all the reactions. The results showed a profound effect of the biomass and catalyst particles size on the overall conversion. A maximum of 31.6% bio-oil was produced using Cu catalyst at the optimized conditions. The Cu catalyst was found more effective in terms of the bio-oil yield. GC-MS and FTIR analyses were carried out in order to characterize the bio-oil. The composition of bio-oil reveals that the Al catalyst is more selective in gas and light hydrocarbons production. The Cu catalyst selectively produced aliphatic hydrocarbons and the Al catalyst favored formation of aromatic hydrocarbons.