Pyrolysis of Vetiveria zizanioides in a fixed-bed reactor and characterization of derivatized innovative products

The present study highlights the pyrolysis of Vetiveria zizanioides for the production of innovative products in a fixed-bed reactor at different temperatures under inert atmosphere. Results revealed that increase in the pyrolysis temperature declines the volatile content from 93.02% to 76.21% and most of the oxygenated compounds were lost and the yield drops to 10.98%. The chemical characterization of bio-oil shows the production of innovative compounds such as phenol, squalene, d -limonene and β-Sitosterol. The major detected compounds in the bio-oil sample were n-hexadecanoic acid (19.98%), 9-octadecenoic acid (12.7%), octadecanoic acid (10%) and stearic acid (8.89%) respectively at 300 °C. The calorific value of original and extracted bio-oil is 14.3 MJ/kg and 22.9 MJ/kg suggesting that the fuel can produce efficient energy on burning. The proposed work provides a better way to optimize process parameters and will help in designing a continuous pyrolyzer for the production of pyrolytic products. • Performance of Vetiveria zizanioides for the production of bio-oil is analysed. • Vetiveria zizanioides contain significant amount of volatile matter. • Maximum calorific value was found to be 22.9% in extracted bio-oil. • Produced bio-oil could be used as liquid biofuels after upgradation.