Coconut Fiber Pyrolysis: Bio-Oil Characterization for Potential Application as an Alternative Energy Source and Production of Bio-Degradable Plastics

The current energy crisis could be alleviated by enhancing energy generation using the abundant biomass waste resources. Agricultural and forest wastes are the leading organic waste streams that can be transformed into useful alternative energy resources. Pyrolysis is one of the technologies for converting biomass into more valuable products, such as bio-oil, bio-char, and syngas. This work investigated the production of bio-oil through batch pyrolysis technology. A fixed bed pyrolyzer was designed and fabricated for bio-oil production. The major components of the system include a fixed bed reactor, a condenser, and a bio-oil collector. The reactor was heated using a cylindrical biomass external heater. The pyrolysis process was carried out in a reactor at a pressure of 1atm and a varying operating temperature of 150˚C, 250˚C, 350˚C to 450˚C for 120 minutes. The mass of 1kg of coconut fiber was used with particle sizes between 2.36 mm - 4.75 mm. The results show that the higher the temperature, the more volume of bio-oil produced, with the highest yield being 39.2%, at 450˚C with a heating rate of 10˚C/min. The Fourier transformation Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy analysis was used to analyze the bio-oil components. The obtained bio-oil has a pH of 2.4, a density of 1019.385 kg/m3, and a calorific value of 17.5 MJ/kg. The analysis also showed the presence of high-oxygenated compounds;carboxylic acids, phenols, alcohols, and branched oxygenated hydrocarbons as the main compounds present in the bio-oil. The results inferred that the liquid product could be bestowed as an alternative resource for polycarbonate material production.

Characteristic wavelength selection of volatile organic compounds infrared spectra based on improved interval partial least squares

As important components of air pollutant,volatile organic compounds(VOCs)can cause great harm to environment and human body.The concentration change of VOCs should be focused on in real-time environment monitoring system.In order to solve the problem of wavelength redundancy in full spectrum partial least squares(PLS)modeling for VOCs concentration analysis,a new method based on improved interval PLS(iPLS)integrated with Monte-Carlo sampling,called iPLS-MC method,was proposed to select optimal characteristic wavelengths of VOCs spectra.This method uses iPLS modeling to preselect the characteristic wavebands of the spectra and generates random wavelength combinations from the selected wavebands by Monte-Carlo sampling.The wavelength combination with the best prediction result in regression model is selected as the characteristic wavelengths of the spectrum.Different wavelength selection methods were built,respectively,on Fourier transform infrared(FTIR)spectra of ethylene and ethanol gas at different concentrations obtained in the laboratory.When the interval number of iPLS model is set to 30 and the Monte-Carlo sampling runs 1000 times,the characteristic wavelengths selected by iPLS-MC method can reduce from 8916 to 10,which occupies only 0.22%of the full spectrum wavelengths.While the RMSECV and correlation coefficient(Rc)for ethylene are 0.2977 and 0.9999 ppm,and those for ethanol gas are 0.2977 ppm and 0.9999.The experimental results show that the iPLS-MC method can select the optimal characteristic wavelengths of VOCs FTIR spectra stably and effectively,and the prediction performance of the regression model can be significantly improved and simplified by using characteristic wavelengths.

Thermogravimetric coupled with Fourier transform infrared analysis study on thermal treatment of monopotassium phosphate residue

In China,safe disposal of hazardous waste is more and more a necessity,urged by rapid economic development.The pyrolysis and combustion characteristics of a residue from producing monopotassium phosphate(monopotassium phosphate residue),considered as a hazardous waste,were studied using a thermogravimetric,coupled with Fourier transform infrared analyzer(TGFTIR).Both pyrolysis and combustion runs can be subdivided into three stages:drying,thermal decomposition,and final devolatilization.The average weight loss rate during fast thermal decomposition stage in pyrolysis is higher than combustion.Acetic acid,methane,pentane,(acetyl)cyclopropane,2,4,6-trichlorophenol,CO,and CO_(2) were distinguished in the pyrolysis process,while CO_(2) was the dominant combustion product.

Post-annealing effect on the structural and mechanical properties of multiphase zirconia films deposited by a plasma focus device

Nanostructured multiphase zirconia films （MZFs） are deposited on Zr substrate by the irradiation of energetic oxygen ions emanated from a plasma focus device. The oxygen operating gas pressure of 1 mbar （1 bar=105 Pa） provides the most appropriate ion energy flux to deposit crystalline ZrO2 films. X-ray diffraction （XRD） patterns reveal the formation of polycrystalline ZrO2 films. The crystallite size （CS）, crystal growth, and dislocation densities are attributed to increasing focus shots, sample axial distances, and working gas pressures. Phase and orientation transformations from t-ZrO2 to m-ZrO2 and c-ZrO2 are associated with increasing focus shots and continuous annealing. For lower （200 ℃） annealing temperature （AT）, full width at half maximum （FWHM） of diffraction peak, CS, and dislocation density （δ） for （020） plane are found to be 0.494, 16.6 nm, and 3.63×10-3 nm-2 while for higher （400 ℃） AT, these parameters for （111） plane are found to be 0.388, 20.87 nm, and 2.29×10-3 nm-2, respectively. Scanning electron microscope （SEM） results demonstrate the formation of rounded grains with uniform distribution. The estimated values of atomic ratio （O/Zr） in ZrO2 films deposited for different axial distances （6 cm, 9 cm, and 12 cm） are found to be 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3, respectively. Fourier transform infrared （FTIR） analysis reveals that the bands appearing at 441 cm-1 and 480 cm-1 belong to m-ZrO2 and t-ZrO2 phases, respectively. Maximum microhardness （8.65±0.45 GPa） of ZrO2 film is ～ 6.7 times higher than the microhardness of virgin Zr.