Agro-Residues as Fuel and as a Feedstock for Other Products

Abstract

The agricultural residue as a source of biomass could be an ideal source for the production of bio-oils and can be used as a substitute for the existing conventional fossil fuels which are at the verge of getting extinct. Though there are many biomass conversion processes like combustion, gasification pyrolysis and liquefaction, pyrolysis has gained special attention as it can convert biomass directly into solid, liquid and gaseous products by thermal decomposition in absence of oxygen. In the present study, rice straw, cassava, cotton seeds and red grams outer cover were pyrolysed at a temperature of 400 and 500 °C. The effect of temperature on yield of pyrolysis liquid product was studied. The various characteristics of liquid product obtained were identified on the basis of standard test methods. The structure of the cotton seed oil was investigated using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and chemical composition of the cotton seed oil was determined by Gas Chromatography equipped with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS).