MICROWAVE-ASSISTED PYROLYSIS FOR CONVERSION OF KARANJA SEED TO BIO-OIL

The growing needs of fuels has been a major problem not only towards the society but as well to the environment. In order to satisfy this energy demand and needs without damaging the Mother Nature and affect the whole ecosystem, bio oil from biomass has been introduced as a potential biofuel that can be used as a replacement for conventional fuel. Microwave-assisted pyrolysis has been recognized as one of the most effective and feasible thermochemical process that able to convert biomass feedstock into three main products which are bio char, bio oil and bio gas. The bio oil obtained from the pyrolysis process are used as an alternative fuels and also other chemical products. In this study, conversion of non-edible seeds which is Pongamia Pinnata, also known as Karanja seed into bio oil had been performed by using two method which are microwave pyrolysis and also conventional pyrolysis. A modified household microwave oven of 800W and microwave pyrolysis reactor was used for the microwave pyrolysis method whereas for conventional pyrolysis, a modified heating mantle apparatus was used to pyrolyzed Karanja into bio oil. Different pyrolysis temperature and time was applied to both techniques to achieved the conversion of bio oil. Finding shows that the yield of bio oil for microwave heating at 350°C and 400°C ranged from 10.70 wt% - 25.60 wt% within 6, 9 and 12 mins. Meanwhile, the yielding for conventional heating with the same temperature as microwave but different pyrolysis time (30, 40 and 50 mins) are recorded from 15.42 wt% - 36.07 wt%. The FTIR results indicated that there are a vast range of functional groups such as carboxylic acids, ketones, alcohols and aldehydes are present in the bio-oils. Moreover, the highest calorific value recorded for both microwave and conventional pyrolysis are 21.2341 MJ/kg and 20.9849 MJ/kg respectively. The pH value also shows that the bio-oils are in the acidic properties as it is the range of 5 to 6