Role of Reaction Temperature on Pyrolysis of Cotton Residue

Cotton production is accompanied by generation of huge amounts of residue all over the world. Slow pyrolysis of cotton residue has been carried out under nitrogen atmosphere at temperatures of 300, 350, 400 and 450 °C. Maximum bio-oil yield of 38 wt% was obtained at 400 °C. The organic fraction of bio-oil has been characterised using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Bio-oil contains phenolic compounds which are mostly derived from lignin fraction. The bio-char characterisation using FT-IR, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) indicate the aromatic structure of bio-char. The gas characterisation indicates that decarboxylation and decarbonylation reactions have majorly occurred during pyrolysis.