Torrefaction and pyrolysis of agrowaste-derived materials: Properties and quality of products

• DOI: 10.35933/paliva.2024.02.03
• Publication Date: 2024-07-15T10:27:01Z
• Authors: Jaroslav Moško; Siarhei Skoblia; Zdeněk Beňo; Josef Farták; Petr Baroš; Petr Jevič; Pavla Měkotová; Michael Pohořelý
• Keywords: harvest residues; biochar; pyrolysis gas; agricultural waste; pyrolysis

Huge amounts of agricultural residues or wastes represent an interesting lignocellulosic material which can be used for energy recovery by pyrolysis as an alternative to incineration. Together with the energy production, biochar (solid residue), can be with an advantage used as a soil conditioner or for other applications such as adsorbents, supporting the principles of circular economy. Here we studied the effect of torrefaction and pyrolysis temperature from 250 to 700 °C on the composition and properties of pyrolysis gas and biochar from four types of agrowaste-derived materials: sunflower harvest residues, grain harvest residues, separate from digestion, and extracted sunflower meal. The paper provides dataset on detailed composition of pyrolysis gases, indicating the differences due to different composition of the feedstock materials and describes the main parameters affecting the use of biochar as soil amendment. Torrefaction proved to be unsuitable for the production of soil amendment quality biochar and the temperature higher than 400 °C is recommended in order to produce good quality biochar while transforming most of the energy content of feedstock to primary pyrolysis products.