Design and Fabrication of Bench-Scale Flash Pyrolysis Reactor for Bio-Fuel Production

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the construction and testing of a bench-scale flash pyrolysis reactor for bio fuel production from local biomasses such as empty fruit bunches (EFB) and rice husk. The reactor is intended for a mobile application where it can be brought into the fields. The design is based on ablative reactor technology so that larger feed size can be processed. The moving rotor is equipped with helical strips to create optimum centrifugal and mechanical force inside the system. In order to provide a sustainable heat source, the resulting syngas is burned and recycled back into the reactor. This reactor will operate with reactor temperature ranges from 450 to 600 °C, 300 - 1,000 °C/s heating rates and 5 - 20 g/min biomass processing capacity. This study can provide an important basis in designing a mobile fast pyrolysis reactor for Malaysia’s biomass which in general consists of higher cellulose content.