Bio-oil and bio-char production from sunflower hulls

Abstract

In this paper, the hydrothermal liquefaction of sunflower hulls into bio­oil and bio­char is presented. The main manipulated variables that were studied were biomass load, catalyst type and temperature. The experimental results show that an increase in temperature, increases bio­oil yield and decreases bio­char yield. An increase in biomass load decreases bio­oil yield. The highest bio­oil yield was observed when sodium carbonate was used as catalyst. The bio­oil yield was low in all instances with a maximum oil yield of 4.7 wt% at 340 ºC and 30 wt% biomass load. The bio­char yield showed very high yields with a maximum yield of 62 wt% at 280 ºC and 30 wt% biomass load. This study shows that liquefaction of sunflower hulls is a viable option for the production of bio­ char