Title: ASPEN Plus predictive simulation of soft and hard wood pyrolysis for bio-energy recovery

Authors: Adewale George Adeniyi; Joshua O. Ighalo

Addresses: Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, P.M.B. 1515, Nigeria ' Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, P.M.B. 1515, Nigeria

Abstract: Thermochemical process such as pyrolysis is one of the most developed options for energy recovery from lignocellulosic biomass sources. A steady-state simulation model was developed for the energy recovery from biomass via pyrolysis using ASPEN Plus v8.8. The biomass feedstocks were beech, Ailanthus and spruce wood. Beech is a hardwood, Ailanthus is a soft hardwood and spruce is softwood. The pyrolysis reactor was modelled by a combination of the yield-shift reactor and the Gibbs reactor. The product yield and composition was calculated by the software via the minimisation of Gibbs free energy method. The simulation was run at atmospheric pressure and 500°C temperature. A bio-oil yield of 62.8% for beech wood, 58.3% for Ailanthus and 54.2% for spruce wood was obtained. Model yield and product composition was validated and considered adequate. The simulation model can be considered as truly predictive for the pyrolysis of soft and hardwood samples in the domain of product yield and product composition.

Keywords: bio-oil; ASPEN Plus; wood; pyrolysis; beech; spruce; ailanthus; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2020.108816

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2020 Vol.26 No.2, pp.234 - 244

Received: 16 Sep 2018
Accepted: 04 Jun 2019
Published online: 04 Aug 2020 *

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