Pyrolysis of Barley Husk Waste with Residual Polystyrene for Liquid Fuel Generation

Abstract

Abstract The objective of this study was to obtain fuel through pyrolysis using barley husk and recycled compact polystyrene as raw materials, which were obtained from urban solid waste from the city of Riobamba, Ecuador. The barley hulls were sampled from different warehouses and mills in the city where grain peeling processes are carried out, while the plastic sampled was completely random. The pyrolysis process was carried out at a temperature of 400 ∘ C in a batch reactor to analyze the effect of temperature on the yield of the liquid product. The product was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), density, viscosity, flash point, fragmentary distillation, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, and calorific value. The pyrolysis result had a high calorific value of 44546.81 kJ/kg. The highest liquid yield was 67.133%, with this, it was determined that the optimum pyrolysis temperature is at 400 ∘ C with a higher amount of light hydrocarbons of about 49% comprised between C4 and C12.

Keywords

• pyrolisis, biomass, polystyrene, hydrocarbon, biofuel.