Co-pyrolysis of biomass and tires using commercial zeolite and biochar-based catalyst

The co-pyrolysis of biomass (sawdust) and tires offers a unique opportunity to utilize these feedstocks to produce biofuels for energy needs. Sawdust and tires were subjected to co-pyrolysis process in a Quartz Wool Matrix reactor under atmospheric pressure. A novel biochar-based catalyst was prepared via a single-step hydrothermal process. The performance of the catalyst was compared with commercial zeolite to determine their effects on the quality of the resulting liquid products from the co-pyrolysis process. Both catalysts showed great catalytic performance in terms of deoxygenation and denitrogenation reactions. The biochar-based catalyst is beneficial for the Diels-Alder reactions because more aromatic hydrocarbons were analyzed in the presence of the newly developed catalyst (32%) compared to zeolite (24%) and the non-catalytic scenario (11.48%). The commercial zeolite exhibits more affinity towards C1-C10 olefins, while the biochar-based catalyst showed more selectivity towards C11-C20 olefins. With the biochar-based catalyst, selectivity of olefins (C11-C20) increased (36%) compared to the non-catalytic process (28%). Design Expert version 11 was used to obtain the optimal process conditions based on the design factors and experimental responses.