Evaluation of the Production of Bio-Oil Obtained Through Pyrolysis of Banana Peel Waste

Abstract

Banana harvesting only uses 20 to 30 % of its mass, leaving 70 to 80 % as waste, studies have indicated that the wastes of the banana are a potential feedstock for pyrolysis due to the volatile matter and fixed carbon that has been found. Peels were milled for reducing the size and submitted to granulometric analysis using the Tyler series sieve. The experimental design was factorial by duplicate. Pyrolysis was performed at four different temperatures (300, 400, 500, and 600 °C), three heating rates (5, 10 and 15 °C/min) and residence time of three hours. Samples were physically and chemically characterized. The granulometric analysis showed an average diameter of 2 mm. The banana powder had a moisture content of 8.16% ± 0.8. The content of lignin (3.24 %), cellulose (6.15 %) and hemicellulose (10.46 %) was identified, and the ash content was 14.92 %. The obtained bio-oils were characterized using GC. At a heating rate of 10 °C /min, bio-oil present a better yield of 6.43 % at 300 °C. The better gas yield was at 600 °C with 70.30% at 5 °C/min and 67.24 % at 10 °C/min. The percent of Pentadecane (C15H32) was the highest with a concentration of 30.018 ppm at 26.4 min of retention time. The bio-oil obtained during pyrolysis experiments had a viscosity of 0.03 ± 0.011 Pa·s determined at 40 °C and density 1118 ± 98 kg/m3 measured at 16 °C. These results showed that banana peels could be used as raw material for solvents, fuels, or bioenergy production.