Pyrolysis characteristics of bean dregs and in situ visualization of pyrolysis transformation

Biomass is an important renewable and sustainable source of energy. Waste products from biomass are considered as attractive feedstocks for the production of fuel. This work deals with the pyrolysis of bean dregs, a biomass waste from soybean processing industry. A technique has been developed to study bean dregs pyrolysis by in situ visualization of bean dregs transformation in a quartz capillary under a microscope using a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera monitoring system. The technique enables us to observe directly the processes and temperatures of bean dregs transformation during pyrolysis. In situ visualization of reaction revealed that how oily liquids are generated and expulsed concurrently from bean dregs during pyrolysis. Pyrolysis characteristics were investigated under a highly purified N₂ atmosphere using a thermogravimetric analyzer from room temperature to 800 °C at different heating rates of 10, 30 and 50 °C/min. The results showed that three stages appeared in this thermal degradation process. The initial decomposition temperature and the peak shifted towards higher temperature with an increase in heating rate. Kinetic parameters in terms of apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor were determined.