Scott William Banks

Aston University · Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

This study investigates fast pyrolysis bio-oils produced from alkali-metal-impregnated biomass (beech wood). The impregnation aim is to study the catalytic cracking of the pyrolysis vapors as a result of potassium or phosphorus. It is recognized that potassium and phosphorus in biomass can have a major impact on the thermal conversion processes. Wh...

Miscanthus × giganteus was subjected to pre-treatment with deionised water, hydrochloric acid or Triton X-100 surfactant, and subsequently fast pyrolysed in a fluidised bed reactor at 535 °C to obtain bio-oil. Triton X-100 surfactant was identified as a promising pre-treatment medium for removal of inorganic matter because its physicochemical natur...

The viscosity of four bio-oil samples was measured experimentally at various shear rates and temperatures by using a rotational viscometer. The experimental bio-oils were derived from fast pyrolysis of beech wood at 450, 500 and 550 °C, and Miscanthus at 500 °C (in this work, they were named as BW1, BW2, BW3 and MXG) in a bubbling fluidised bed rea...

This chapter provides a review of catalytic fast pyrolysis of biomass and its potential for improving fast pyrolysis oil quality. Catalytic pyrolysis focuses on the use of catalysts in a fast pyrolysis system processing biomass and/or waste materials for the production of bio-oil, liquid, and secondary products. As the development of sustainable en...

Bioenergy is widely included in energy strategies for its GHG mitigation potential. Bioenergy technologies will likely have to be deployed at scale to meet decarbonisation targets, and consequently biomass will have to be increasingly grown/mobilised. Sustainability risks associated with bioenergy may intensify with increasing deployment and where...

Biochar is obtained from the pyrolysis of biomass in the absence of oxygen and has great potential as a sorbent or as a carbon sequestration material. Although numerous studies have investigated biochar characteristics, the biochar porosity and sorption properties obtained with different pyrolysis conditions are still largely unclear. The objective...

This study aims to compare the potential of Virginia mallow to other high yielding perennial grasses and hardwoods by characterising and comparing fast pyrolysis product yields. Feedstocks selected for this study include miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus), Virginia mallow (Sida hermaphrodita), willow short rotation coppice (SRC) (Salix viminalis)...

Co-pyrolysis is one of the most promising options for using coal and biomass because coal is low in hydrogen and biomass can supplement the hydrogen content to make a more valuable and reactive product gas. The mixture of coal and biomass is prepared, with the mass ratio of biomass varying between 0 and 100%. Due to limitations in experimental meth...

The large variations found in literature for the activation energy values of main biomass compounds (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) in pyrolysis TGA raise concerns regarding the reliability of both the experimental and the modelling side of the performed works. In this work, an international round robin has been conducted by 7 partners who pe...

The catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of biomass represents an efficient integrated process to produce deoxygenated stable liquid fuels and valuable chemical products from lignocellulosic biomass. The zeolite ZSM-5 is a widely studied catalyst for the CFP process. However, its microporous structure may limit the diffusion of high molecular weight pyro...

This study presents the first experimental investigation of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) waste fast pyrolysis in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor. The physiochemical characteristics of the feedstock (from cultivars grown in the Emirate of Sharjah in the UAE), including three anatomical parts of the plant, namely, leaves, leaf stems and empty fru...

The distributed activation energy model (DAEM) has been widely used to analyze the thermal decomposition of solid fuels such as lignocellulosic biomass and its components, coal, microalgae, oil shale, waste plastics, and polymer etc. The DAEM with a single distribution of activation energies cannot describe those reactions well since the thermal de...

In this study, catalytic and non-catalytic fast pyrolysis of dried olive husk and olive kernels was carried out. A bubbling fluidised bed reactor was used for the non-catalytic processing of the solid olive wastes. In-situ catalytic upgrading of biomass fast pyrolysis vapours was performed in a fixed bed bench-scale reactor at 500 °C, for catalyst...

Modelling of lignocellulosic biomass pyrolysis processes can be used to determine their key operating and design parameters. This requires significant amount of information about pyrolysis kinetic parameters, in particular the activation energy. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is the most commonly used tool to obtain experimental kinetic data, and...

Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant and renewable material in the world for the production of biofuels. Using lignocellulosic biomass derived biofuels could reduce reliance on fossil fuels and contribute to climate change mitigation. A profound understanding of the physicochemical properties of lignocellulosic biomass and the analytical ch...

* * * All files available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4580468 * * * This paper presents a novel kinetic reaction model for biomass pyrolysis processes. The model is based on the three main building blocks of lignocellulosic biomass, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin and can be readily implemented in Aspen Plus and easily adapted to other p...

A novel simulation model for pyrolysis processes of lignocellulosic biomass in AspenPlus ® was presented at the BC&E 2013. Based on kinetic reaction mechanisms, the simulation calculates product compositions and yields depending on reactor conditions (temperature, residence time, flue gas flow rate) and feedstock composition (biochemical compositio...

This study investigates the quality of fast pyrolysis bio-oils produced from potassium and phosphorus impregnated biomass (beech wood). The impregnation aim is to study the in situ catalytic cracking mechanism of the pyrolysis vapours. It is recognised that potassium and phosphorous in biomass can have a major impact on the thermal conversion proce...

This study investigates fast pyrolysis bio-oils produced from pre-treated biomass (Miscanthus x giganteus). The pre-treatments aim to reduce the alkali metal content of the biomass to reduce catalytic cracking of the pyrolysis vapours. It is recognised that some metals in the biomass can have a major impact on the thermal processes, mainly potassiu...