Biochar production via pyrolysis of citrus peel fruit waste as a potential usage as solid biofuel

Selvarajoo A 1 , Wong YL 2 , Khoo KS 3 , Chen WH 4 , Show PL 5

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: Anurita.Selvarajoo@nottingham.edu.my
  • 2 Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 3 Faculty of Applied Sciences, UCSI University, UCSI Heights, 56000, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 4 Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701, Taiwan; Research Center for Smart Sustainable Circular Economy, Tunghai University, Taichung, 407, Taiwan; Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung, 411, Taiwan
  • 5 Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: PauLoke.Show@nottingham.edu.my
Chemosphere, 2022 Jan 26;294:133671.
PMID: 35092753 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.133671

Abstract

Renewable energy sources such as biomass have been proven to be one of the promising sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. However, using biomass directly as a fuel is less attractive due to its high moisture content, poor grindability, low bulk density, and low energy density nature. Hence biomass can be converted into biochar to overcome these challenges. In this study, biochar was derived from citrus peels biomass by slow pyrolysis over the temperature range of 300-700 °C. The effect of pyrolysis temperature on the quality of citrus peels-derived biochar was examined based on the physical and chemical properties obtained from various analyses. The citrus peels biomass and biochar were characterized by means of higher heating value (HHV) analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (FESEM-EDX), Fourier transform infrared ray (FTIR) analysis, proximate and thermogravimetric analysis. Based on the characterization results, the potential usage of the derived biochar as a solid fuel was discussed. Results obtained from the pyrolysis experiments indicated that a lower pyrolysis temperature produced a higher char yield. The carbon content and energy content of biochar were found to be increasing with pyrolysis temperature. Biochar produced at 500 °C presented the best fuel properties by having the highest value of HHV and carbon content. The results from this study provided great insights into biomass waste reutilisation to generate value-added biochar for renewable energy production in Malaysia.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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