Studies on the Fuel Characteristics of Empty Fruit and Seed of Sterculia Foetida

Abstract: Biomass characterization is the primary step to make use them as feedstock in energy conversion technologies. The empty fruits and seeds of Sterculia foetida tree drop down as waste. Hence, these samples were characterized for proximate content, elemental composition, heating value, thermal behavior and functional groups. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the active pyrolysis of empty fruit and seed occurred with a mass loss of 59.821% and 51.315% respectively. The empty fruit decomposed in the oxidation atmosphere with a mass loss of 80.20%. Spectroscopic analysis exposed the presence of several organic compounds in the biomass samples. Empty fruit and seed were found to be excellent sources for thermal energy conversion.

Keywords: Sterculia foetida, empty fruit, seed, TGA, pyrolysis, combustion, FTIR.

INTRODUCTION

The depletion of conventional energy resources and concerns of environmental pollution has been constantly demanding the researchers to look for renewable energy sources. Biomass is one of the largest sources of renewable and sustainable energy. Biomass is capable of providing a continuous supply of fuels and chemicals with zero CO2 emission. In India, the biomass production is estimated to be in the range of 62–310 metric tons per year [1]. Major part of biomass is produced from farming activities and agroindustrial sector. Biomass materials such as bagasse, rice husk, soya husk, straw, cotton stalk, coconut shells, de-oiled cakes, coffee waste, jute waste, groundnut shells, saw dust etc. are used as solid fuels in pyrolysis, combustion and gasification processes for the production of fuels, chemicals and power [2]. Empty fruits [3] and non-edible seeds are also employed in these processes. The availability of oil makes the seeds more preferable for the production of bio-oil viz pyrolysis process. The chemical composition, heat content and pyrolysis characteristics of palm empty fruit bunch [4] and seeds such as mahua, karanja, niger and linseed [5] were characterized and pyrolysis properties were studied and reported. The characterization of biomass is the first step to find the feasibility to use in thermochemical processes. In this context, this work was focused to characterize the empty fruit and seeds of Sterculia foetida (S. foetida) as solid fuel feedstock for thermochemical processes
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