Potential source of bio-fuel from pyrolysis of treated sewage sludge

Pyrolysis is the thermal degradation which produces three main products; char (solid), bio-oil (liquid) and gas. In this study fast pyrolysis of two different treated sewage sludge (TSS) samples were performed in a fluidized-bed reactor. The experiment was carried out at varying temperature ranging from 500 to 650 °C. Nitrogen gas was supplied as purge flow with a 50 ml/min flow rate. The optimum bio-oil yield for TSS-C and TSS-D samples was obtained at an optimum temperature of 600 °C. The yield was 21.53±0.58 wt% and 24.56±1.39 wt% respectively. The proximate and ultimate analysis of the treated sewage sludge was also carried out. The bio-oil produced from optimum temperature was analyzed by GC-MS. The study indicated that the majority chemical compounds of bio-oil from fast pyrolysis were phenol, aromatic, nitrogenated compound, alkenes and alkanes.