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Copyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass with waste plastics for resource recovery
Date Issued
01-01-2018
Author(s)
Ojha, Deepak K.
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass and waste plastics are promising feedstocks for the production of liquid fuels via pyrolysis, which is a promising thermochemical conversion technique. The direct use of liquid bio-oil produced from biomass is restricted as it has high oxygen (28%-40%) and moisture (15%-30%) contents, is unstable due to its acidity (~ pH of 2.0-4.0), and possesses low calorific value (~ 20 MJ kg-1). Copyrolysis of biomass with plastics is a potential technique to improve the quality of the bio-oil. Owing to the presence of hydrogen-rich polymers like polyethylene and polypropylene and aromatic polymers like polystyrene, significant interactions between biomass pyrolysis intermediates and polymer free radicals are expected. This promotes the quality of bio-oil in terms of better hydrogen-to-carbon and hydrogen-to-oxygen ratios, stability, and heating value. This chapter addresses the fundamentals of copyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass and polymers by giving due importance to the recent literature on quality of copyrolysis bio-oil, optimum reaction conditions, role of catalysts, and product formation mechanisms.