Solar Assisted Fast Pyrolysis: A Novel Approach of Renewable Energy Production

Abstract

Biofuel produced by fast pyrolysis from biomass is a promising candidate. The heart of the system is a reactor which is directly or indirectly heated to approximately 500 ∘ C by exhaust gases from a combustor that burns pyrolysis gas and some of the byproduct char. In most of the cases, external biomass heater is used as heating source of the system while internal electrical heating is recently implemented as source of reactor heating. However, this heating system causes biomass or other conventional forms of fuel consumption to produce renewable energy and contributes to environmental pollution. In order to overcome these, the feasibility of incorporating solar energy with fast pyrolysis has been investigated. The main advantages of solar reactor heating include renewable source of energy, comparatively simpler devices, and no environmental pollution. A lab scale pyrolysis setup has been examined along with 1.2 m diameter parabolic reflector concentrator that provides hot exhaust gas up to 162∘ C. The study shows that about 32.4% carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and almost one-third portion of fuel cost are reduced by incorporating solar heating system. Successful implementation of this proposed solar assisted pyrolysis would open a prospective window of renewable energy.

Thermodynamic Analysis of a Solar Combined Ejector Absorption Cooling System

“…Figure 8 reproduces the solar chart for the test day. The efficiency of the Fresnel collector as expressed in (5) depends on the quadratic temperature difference Δ = − (equation (2)) between that of heat transfer flow and ambient. In the high-lightened gray interval in Figure 4, the temperature affects more the collector efficiency than the irradiance .…”

“…Solar energy applications and practices are investigated for different domains [1] such as pyrolysis [2], refrigeration and cooling [3], power generation [4], drying and various other industrial uses [5,6]. In view of the increased interest in high temperature solar applications, many studies focus on the amelioration of collector configurations and concentrator techniques in order to improve their optical efficiency and the heat transfer characteristics of the absorber by using for instance nanofluids as a heat transfer fluids [7].…”

Surface decoration and characterization of solar driven biochar for the removal of toxic aromatic pollutant

“…Solar thermal pyrolysis is more cost-effective, carbon-neutral, sustainable, energy-saving, and eco-friendly. [15][16][17][18][19] It can reduce almost 33% production cost and 32.4% carbon emission. 19 Solar driven pyrolysis has some more advantages over conventional process such as conventional pyrolysis takes long time for startup while solar reactor has the edge of quick startup and shut down of the process.…”

Flowsheet Modeling and Simulation of Biomass Steam Gasification for Hydrogen Production

“…Energy demand is growing unceasingly for the past numerous decades because of the fast development in industries, but fossil fuel reserves are also in continuous decay [1][2][3]. Biomass is one of the renewable energy sources having substantial environmental benefits with regard to neutral carbon emissions and reducing greenhouse gas emissions [4][5][6]. The interest in the utilization of this resource in modern energy conversion facilities started to grow especially after the oil crisis of the 1970s.…”