Bio-oil production from rice husk fast pyrolysis in a conical spouted bed reactor

The fast pyrolysis of rice husk has been performed in the 400–600 °C range in a continuous pyrolysis bench-scale plant equipped with a conical spouted bed reactor (CSBR) with continuous removal of the char. In this paper it is studied the influence of temperature on product yields and products composition (gas, bio-oil and char) as well as the effect over the char properties. Bio-oil yield is very high (70 wt.% at 450 °C) due to the high capacity of mass and heat transfer as well as the reduced residence time of the CSBR. Moreover, bio-oil yield decreases slightly with temperature owing to the increase of gas yield, which is very low in the whole range of temperature studied. These results evidence the suitability of CSBR for the fast pyrolysis of rice husk, with the aim of obtaining bio-oil and char. The char can be upgraded by obtaining amorphous silica and activated carbon.