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Chong, Jia Wen (2023) Computational and experimental studies on the reaction mechanism of bio-oil components with additives for increased stability and fuel quality. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

As one of the world’s largest palm oil producers, Malaysia encountered a major disposal problem as vast amount of oil palm biomass wastes are produced. To overcome this problem, these biomass wastes can be liquefied into biofuel with fast pyrolysis technology. However, further upgradation of fast pyrolysis bio-oil via direct solvent addition was required to overcome it’s undesirable attributes. In addition, the high production cost of biofuels often hinders its commercialisation. Thus, the designed solvent-oil blend needs to achieve both fuel functionality and economic targets to be competitive with the conventional diesel fuel.

In this thesis, a multi-stage computer-aided molecular design (CAMD) framework was employed for bio-oil solvent design. In the design problem, molecular signature descriptors were applied to accommodate different classes of property prediction models. However, the complexity of the CAMD problem increases as the height of signature increases due to the combinatorial nature of higher order signature. Thus, a consistency rule was developed reduce the size of the CAMD problem. The CAMD problem was then further extended to address the economic aspects via fuzzy multi-objective optimisation approach.

Next, a rough-set based machine learning (RSML) model has been proposed to correlate the feedstock characterisation and pyrolysis condition with the pyrolysis bio-oil properties by generating decision rules. The generated decision rules were analysed from a scientific standpoint to identify the underlying patterns, while ensuring the rules were logical. The decision rules generated can be used to select optimal feedstock composition and pyrolysis condition to produce pyrolysis bio-oil of targeted fuel properties.

Next, the results obtained from the computational approaches were verified through experimental study. The generated pyrolysis bio-oils were blended with the identified solvents at various mixing ratio. In addition, emulsification of the solvent-oil blend in diesel was also conducted with the help of surfactants. Lastly, potential extensions and prospective work for this study have been discuss in the later part of this thesis. To conclude, this thesis presented the combination of computational and experimental approaches in upgrading the fuel properties of pyrolysis bio-oil. As a result, high quality biofuel can be generated as a cleaner burning replacement for conventional diesel fuel.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Chemmangattuvalappil, Nishanth G. Thangalazhy Gopakumar, Suchithra Muthoosamy, Kasturi
Keywords:	computer-aided molecular design, pyrolysis bio-oil, biofuel, rough set machine learning, solvent design
Subjects:	T Technology > TP Chemical technology
Faculties/Schools:	University of Nottingham, Malaysia > Faculty of Science and Engineering — Engineering > Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Item ID:	72215
Depositing User:	Chong, Jia
Date Deposited:	18 Feb 2023 04:40
Last Modified:	18 Feb 2023 04:40
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/72215

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