The performances of intimately mix and layer methods in microwave assisted pyrolysis system

Abstract

The oil palm shell was subjected to multimode microwave pyrolysis at a fixed microwave power of 300W at 2.54GHz using intimately mix and layer microwave heating methods to observe process temperature, pyrolysis product and bio-oil composition at various levels of Coconut Activated Carbon (CAC). The results indicated that the layers method achieved higher bio-oil yield with complete uniformity of process temperature at high CAC loading compared to intimate mix method. The increased CAC loading increased selectivity towards phenol in bio-oil with maximum phenol 80.23 %area and 51.77%area under GC-MS at 75wt% CAC loading using intimately mix and layer method, respectively. The layer method produced a new product 1,1-dimethyl hydrazine of 11.24–13.01 %area in bio-oils which was not found of using intimately mix method. The 1,1-dimethly hydrazine is an important source of high energy fuel.