Bio-oil

Bio-oils are dark red-to-black liquids that are produced by biomass pyrolysis. Biomass is typically obtained from municipal wastes or from agricultural and forestry by-products (Demirbas, 2007). With an efficiency rate as high as ~70%, pyrolysis is among the most efficient processes for biomass conversion. The density of the liquid is approximately 1,200 kg/m3, which is higher than that of fuel oils and significantly higher than that of the original biomass. The gasification of bio-oil with pure oxygen and the further processing of syngas into synthetic fuel by the FT process, is being investigated; however, this process does not appear to be economically attractive (Demirbas & Balat, 2006).