Slow, Wet and Catalytic Pyrolysis of Fowl Manure

Authors: Renzo Carta, Mario Cruccu, Francesco Desogus

Abstract:

This work presents the experimental results obtained at a pilot plant which works with a slow, wet and catalytic pyrolysis process of dry fowl manure. This kind of process mainly consists in the cracking of the organic matrix and in the following reaction of carbon with water, which is either already contained in the organic feed or added, to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Reactions are conducted in a rotating reactor maintained at a temperature of 500°C; the required amount of water is about 30% of the dry organic feed. This operation yields a gas containing about 59% (on a volume basis) of hydrogen, 17% of carbon monoxide and other products such as light hydrocarbons (methane, ethane, propane) and carbon monoxide in lesser amounts. The gas coming from the reactor can be used to produce not only electricity, through internal combustion engines, but also heat, through direct combustion in industrial boilers. Furthermore, as the produced gas is devoid of both solid particles and pollutant species (such as dioxins and furans), the process (in this case applied to fowl manure) can be considered as an optimal way for the disposal and the contemporary energetic valorization of organic materials, in such a way that is not damaging to the environment.

Keywords: Brushwood, fowl manure, kenaf, pilot plant, pyrolysis, pyrolysis gas.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1074827

References:

[1] I. Ahmed, and A. K. Gupta, "Syngas yield during pyrolysis and steam gasification of paper," Appl. Energy, vol. 86, no. 9, pp. 1813-1821, Sep. 2009.
[2] P. Bhattacharya, P. H. Steele, E. B. M. Hassan, B. Mitchell, L. Ingram, and C. U. Pittman, "Wood/plastic copyrolysis in an auger reactor: chemical and physical analysis of the products," Fuel, vol. 88, no. 7, pp. 1251-1260, Jul. 2009.
[3] I. Demiral, and S. ┼×ensöz, "The effects of different catalysts on the pyrolysis of industrial wastes (olive and hazelnut bagasse)," Bioresour. Technol., vol. 99, no. 17, pp. 8002-8007, Nov. 2008.
[4] S. Ucar, and A. R. Ozkan, "Characterization of products from the pyrolysis of rapeseed oil cake," Bioresour. Technol., vol. 99, no. 18, pp. 8771-8776, Dec. 2008.
[5] D. Mohan, C. U. Pittman, and P. H. Steele, "Pyrolysis of wood/biomass for bio-oil: a critical review," Energy Fuels, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 848-889, May 2006.
[6] R. Carta, M. Cruccu, F. Desogus, and L. Sanna, "Pirolisi lenta, umida e catalitica di rifiuti solidi urbani con produzione di energia elettrica e calore," in Atti dei Convegni Lincei, vol. 258, Rome: Scienze e Lettere Editore Commerciale, 2010, pp. 137-141.
[7] M. Cruccu, "Produzione di energia elettrica e vapore dalle biomasse agricole" Frutticoltura Notizie, Italy, 1997.
[8] M. Cruccu, "Ecco il kenaf" Sardegna Agricoltura, Italy, 2000.
[9] R. Carta, M. Cruccu, and F. Desogus, "Economic analysis of processes to perform electric generation from biomass" Int. Rev. Chem. Eng., vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 269-273, May 2012.
[10] J. Lehmann, and M. Rondon, Biological Approaches to Sustainable Soil Systems. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2006.