Assessment of miscanthus biomass (Miscanthus sacchariflorus) for conversion and utilization of bio-oil by fluidized bed type fast pyrolysis Jae-Young Kim a , Shinyoung Oh a , Hyewon Hwang a , Youn-Ho Moon b , Joon Weon Choi a, * a Department of Forest Sciences and Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University, 599 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-921, Republic of Korea b Bioenergy Crop Research Center, Rural Development Administration, Muan 534-833, Republic of Korea article info Article history: Received 21 April 2014 Received in revised form 2 July 2014 Accepted 3 August 2014 Available online 2 September 2014 Keywords: Miscanthus sacchariflorus Fast pyrolysis Bio-oil Inorganic constituent Thermo-gravimetric analysis GC/MS abstract Liquid bio-oils were produced from miscanthus (Miscanthus sacchariflorus) by fast pyrolysis at various temperature ranges (350e500  C) with a short residence time and their physicochemical properties were determined to evaluate the potentials for biofuel utilization. Before operating fast pyrolysis, miscanthus was subjected to ICP-ES (inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometer) analysis and TGA (ther- mogravimetric analysis). It was learned that miscanthus was thermally unstable due to large amounts of inorganic constituents including potassium (5643.8 ppm), calcium (711.0 ppm) and magnesium (1403.1 ppm). With fast pyrolysis, the yield of bio-oil gradually decreased with increasing temperature and residence time. The maximum yield of bio-oil was ca. 58.9 wt% at 350  C with a residence time of 1.9 s. The HHV (higher heating value) of bio-oil was determined up to 18.0 MJ/kg produced at 400  C with a residence time of 1.9 s. The water content of bio-oil was ranged from 21.1 to 56.9 wt%. GC/MS (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry) analysis showed that bio-oil was mostly composed of carbohydrate derivatives and lignin derivatives. 1-(Acetyloxy)-2-butanone, furfural, dihydro-methy-furanone and levoglucosan were the predominant low molecular weight compounds that originated from carbohy- drate and those from lignin were guaiacol 4-vinylphenol and syringol. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Lignocellulosic biomass is an alternative carbon-based resource that can be converted to various products such as feed, energy, fuel and chemicals. In particular, renewable energy from lignocellulosic biomass has received growing interest due to the concerns over depletion of fossil fuel and increases in energy demand and costs [1]. For example, several kinds of bioenergy such as organic waste, wood pellet, and biogas have been used for district heating [2]. Moreover, lignocellulosic biomass contains a negligible amount of nitrogen and sulfur, which results in lower emission of environmentally harmful substances such as NOx and SOx [3]. Recently, miscanthus (Miscanthus sacchariflorus) has gained significant attention as a potential bio-energy crop because of its high growth rate as well as low nutritional requirements [4]. In addition, miscanthus, a genus of the C 4 perennial grasses, has additional advantages such as high biomass yield potential, high energy density, low water content, low establishment costs and low soil erosion compared to alternative biomass sources [5e7]. The harvested miscanthus can be used as crude fuel for the generation of heat or electric power as well as other advanced transport fuels or chemicals [8,9]. There are many biochemical and thermochemical technologies which can convert miscanthus to liquid fuel or chemicals [10]. Fast pyrolysis is one thermochemical conversion technology, which requires 350e550  C in the absence of oxygen. Under this condi- tion, organic materials are rapidly thermo-decomposed to volatile compounds, which are condensed to bio-oil (liquid) by passing through a quenching system. In addition, char (solid) and non- condensable gases (CH 4 ,H 2 , CO and CO 2 ) are formed as by- products due to side reactions [11,12]. Bio-oil, the main product of fast pyrolysis, is supposed to substitute fossil fuel oils in household or industrial field including boilers, engines and turbine for energy generation. The utilization of bio-oil as alternative of heavy fuel oil has already been proven in several studies [13,14]. According to burner fuel standard (ASTM D 7544), caloric value (MJ/kg), water content (%), kinematic viscosity (cSt), pH and ash content (%) are * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ82 2 880 4788; fax: þ82 2 873 2318. E-mail address: cjw@snu.ac.kr (J.W. Choi). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.08.010 0360-5442/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Energy 76 (2014) 284e291