ENERGY EXPLORATION & EXPLOITATION, cilt.31, sa.6, ss.847-858, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
Chestnut cupulae pyrolysis experiments were conducted in a fixed-bed reactor in an attempt to determine the effects of pyrolysis temperature, particle size and sweeping gas (N-2) flow rate on the product yields. The maximum bio-oil yield of 52.50 wt% was obtained from chestnut cupulae in N-2 atmosphere at a pyrolysis temperature of 600 degrees C, sweeping gas-flow rate of 100 cm(3). min(-1) and particle size of D-p <= 250 mm. The pyrolysis oils were collected in a cold trap maintained liquid nitrogen and characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR, H-1-NMR and GC. Chromatographic and spectroscopic studies on bio-oil have shown that chestnut cupulae can be used as a fuel and chemical feedstock.