Slow pyrolysis of Indonesian woods waste for

production of liquid fuels

Gesyth Mutiara Hikhmah Al Ichsan1, Khoirina Dwi Nugrahaningtiyas2a),
Dian Maruto Widjonarko2
1
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Postgraduate Sebelas Maret University
Jl. Ir. A. Sutami 36A, Kentingan, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia
2
Department of Chemistry, Sebelas maret University
Jl. Ir. A. Sutami 36A, Kentingan, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia

a)
email: khoirina@mipa.uns.ac.id

Abstract.

The slow pyrolysis of Indonesian woods waste was performed by tubular transport reactor, which are is focused on
searching for high bio-oil yield. The pyrolysis processes followed by purification by fractional distillation method. The
Materials that used in this research come from different Indonesian woods wastes, namely: Randu wood (Ceiba
pentandra), Sengon wood (Paraserianthes falcataria), Coconut wood (Cocos nucifera), Bangkirei wood (Shorea laevis
Ridl), Kruing wood (Dipterocarpus) and Meranti wood (Shorea leprosula ). The mMaximum bio-oil yield was obtained
at 300○C without N2 gas. The result showed that after purification, obtained bio-oil of 16-31% wt. The bio-oil product
was analyzed for elemental content, density, acidity, and caloric value based on SNI procedure, while bio-oil chemical
composition was investigated using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS). The chemical characterization
of bio-oil can be used a renewable fuels.

Keyword: Woods waste, slow pyrolysis, bio-oil, characterization.

1. Introduction
Bio-oil from slow pyrolysis wood waste can replace fossil fuels. Application of
bio-oil materials can be used on boiler, engine, gasoline and cheamical feedstock
(Okoroigwe et al., 2015 ; Mazlan et al., 2015; and Tan et al., 2017; Mortensen et al.,
2011 and Zhao et al., 2015).
Indonesia is a developing country with a large population and abundant natural
resources.
Forest wood waste is only used as fuel for the needs of cooking in the
countryside. In addition, the waste is only burned and causes environmental
pollution. Meanwhile, there is no specific treatment to overcome the waste. Pyrolysis
is one of the stages to convert biomass into renewable energy.
Sensoz, (2003) and Yorgun et al., (2015) have performed slow pyrolysis on a
fixed-bed reactor method. The results of Sensoz, (2003) showed that the maximum
pyrolysis yield was 33.25% at 450 ○C, while the results of Yorgun et al., (2015)
showed that the pyrolysis yield was 54.0% at 773 K500 ○C.
 The purpose of this study was to find out slow pyrolysis productsbio-oil from six
forestry hardwood waste and to know the potential of these pyrolysis products for
bio-fuel. Therefore, lLiquid products from pyrolysis are studied in terms of chemical
and physical components such as pH, density, and caloric values.

2. Experimental
2.1 Preparation woods waste sample
Randu, sengon, glugu, bangkirei, meranti and kruing woods from a local market
in Surakarta and used as a raw material for pyrolysis. The collected samples were
washed repeatedly with distilled water to remove dust and dirt, dried in an oven
at 120○C over 4 hours to remove moisture before the experiment was performed.
The samples was stored in an airlight container before use.
2.2 Pyrolysis
A tubular transport reactor was used for the slow pyrolysis study of Randu,
sengon, glugu, bangkirei, meranti and kruing woods. Wood samples were put into
the sample place on the pyrolysis device, then the furnace was ignited. The
temperature used is 200- 300○C and the time spent on pyrolysis is calculated
when the bio-oil begins to drip the first time until the bio-oil is not dripping again
on the bottle. Furthermore, the distillation of faksinasi at temperature 95-100 ○C .
Time spent 2-3 hours. So as to obtain a more pure bio-oil.
2.3 Characterization
Bio-oil pyrolysis results are further characterized by physical and chemical
analysis. Physical analysis carried out consisted of determination of density,
viscosity, acidity rate, hhv, carbon, nitrogen and sulfur content. Meanwhile,
chemical analysis was done with GC-MS.
3. Result and discussion
3.1 Product yield

The results of pyrolysis products of six wood waste at 300○C forming bio-oil,
bio-oil and gas are shown in Table 1.

Tabel 1. Pyrolysis experiments result

Parameter Sample
Randu Sengon Glugu Bangkirei Merant Kruin
i g
Bio-oil yield (wt%) 35,56 36,98 35,76 32,97 38,76 40
Bio-char yield (wt%) 37,93 21,07 43,47 35,81 38,18 32,45
Gas yield (wt%) 26,51 41,95 20,77 31,22 23,06 27,55
 Based on Table 1, kruing wood waste gives high bio-oil yield. This
indicates that the wood waste contains the highest volatile content. Meanwhile,
the highest charcoal wood waste causes secondary reactions to increase from
volatile products and cause the resulting bio-oil to be reduced (Hawash et al.,
2016). In Table 1 the highest gas produced from sengon wood, whereas the
meranti wood produces the lowest gas. It shows that the gas produced is not
affected by the biomass type during the slow pyrolysis process. Glugu produces
the highest bio-char compared to the wood of randu, sengon, bangkirei, meranti
and kruing woods. Differences in the composition of the resulting bio-char may be
due to differences in decomposition routes of each wood waste.

Figure 1. the purification result of bio-oil of six types of wood using

fractionation distillation method., Tthe amount of condensate produced has a
yield of 16-31%. The largest amount of condensate is found in the meranti bio-oil
of 31% and the smallest amount of condensate is glugu wood 16%. Meranti
contains the highest bio oil, meanwhile glugu contains the lowers bio-oil. This is
presumably due to hard woody meranti so that the lignin content is greater than
glugu which is softy woody waste. The results of this study in accordance with
research ......
35

30

25

20
% yield

15

10

0
Randu Sengon Kruing Glugu Bangkirei Merant
Sample

Figure 1. Yield percentage of products from fractional distillation of different bio-oil

Bio-oil contains up to 92% water in addition to components dispersed in

bio-oils such as phenol, carbonyl, acid, furan, and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (Mazlan et al., 2015; Waheed et al., 2015 and Tan et al., 2017).
 Distilled brown fractionated bio-oil compared to the previous brown red. This is
because the harmful compounds have been successfully separated.

3.2 Chemical composition

The bio-oil composition is identified using GC-MS. Bio-oil is a very
complex mixture that contains hundreds of chemical compounds in different
molecular weights. In this study, only the main peaks with a higher percentage of
area were presented. This observation may be associated with partial degradation
of biomass components that provide larger molecules, such as sugar derivatives,
which are consistent with the results shown in Table 2.
Tabel 2. Chemical components of the bio-oil (area%) on chromatogram

Compound % sample
Rand Sengon Glugu Bangkirei Merant Kruing
u i
Fromic Acid - 3,93 3,52 5,34 - 2,72
2,6-dimetoxy 7,23 7,21 5,88 9,53 - 4,47
phenol
1,2,3 trimetil 4,50 3,95 3,10 2,54 1,98 2,57
benzene
levoglucosan 29,73 29,22 30,05 17,57 32,08 45,76
2,4 6,54 5,35 4,37 4,48 1,92 2,63
hexadienedioic
Acid
1, 2- Benzenediol - - 6,37 7,67 5,04 6,92

Table 2 shows the identified compounds and total area of each type of
chemicals in bio-oil. Each compound in Table 2 has been grouped into acids (e.g
fromic acid and 2,4 hexadienedioic acid), alcohols (e.g 1,2- Benzenediol),
benzene derivatives (e.g 1,2,3 trimethyl benzene) and sugar (e.g levoglucosan).
Table 2 shows that sugar is the main product for slow pyrolysis of randu, sengon,
glugu, bangkirei, meranti and kruing wood at 300°C such as levoglucosan.
Levoglucosan is a precusor for secondary reactions, such as decarboxylation and
repolymerization, from secondary products, such as pyran and light oxygenated
compounds (Tan et al., 2017).
 Some other important properties of bio-oil required for characterization are
also calculated and presented in Table 3.

Tabel 3. Some physical and chemical properties of the bio-oils

Bio-oil Densitas pH HHV Elementalanalysis (%)
3
(g/cm ) (MJ/Kg) C N S
Randu 1,13 3,72 15,74 44,90 0,27 7,01
Sengon 1,24 3,58 18,62 41.37 0,21 6,41
Glugu 1,06 3,66 14,68 42,15 0,33 8,97
Bangkirei 1,23 3,75 18,29 47,56 0,22 7,73
Meranti 1,12 3,59 17,13 48,26 0,33 8,97
Kruing 1,08 3,62 18,23 41,97 0,14 7,15

Bio-oil obtained from slow pyrolysis of wood waste is very acidic in nature.
High heating value (HHV) from vio-oil is very less compared to fuel from
petroleum. However, bio-oil has more density than petroleum oil. Bio-oil contains
high carbon and sulfur. Meanwhile, the nitrogen content in bio-oil is very low. Bio-
oil can not replace petroleum oil. However, bio-oil can be used for various high-
value chemicals (Mahawdad el al., 2012).
4. Conclusion
In this study, slow pyrolysis experiments of Indonesian woods waste were
performed in a tubular transport reactor. The highest liquid yieal of 40% was
obtained at final pyrolysis temperature of 300 ○C. The bio-oil is a mixture of aliphatic
and aromatic hydrocarbons such as fromic acid, 2,4 hexadienedioic acid, 1, 2-
benzenediol, 1,2,3 trimethyl benzene and levoglucosan. Characterization of bio-oil
properties such as density, acid value, calorific value and element content that can be
used as an alternative source for boilers, burners, and many other uses.

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful for Sebelas Maret University program for their financing
supports for this work under the Grant of University Research Commitee.

Reference