Journal of the Institute of Energy, Vol.71, No.486, 55-58, 1998
Pyrolytic recycling of agro-industrial solid wastes in Malaysia
The agro-industrial sector of Malaysia generates a significant amount of solid waste, including those from palm-oil mills, paddy rice, and scrapped tyres and tubes. All these can be recycled to improve materials and produce energy. Among the various recycling techniques the most promising method appears to be thermo-chemical pyrolysis. In this study, rice husk and palm shell wastes were considered for recycling. Feed particles underwent fluidised-bed pyrolysis at moderate temperature and were converted into pyrolytic oil, solid char and gas. Oil and char were collected, and the gas was flared. The oil was characterised by FT-ir, GC and GC-MS techniques, and the char was analysed for its elemental composition. The phenolic fraction in the oil was found to be quite high, and the gasoline range fraction was found to be present also; however, the components were mostly oxygenated.