Copyrolysis of coconut shell and polyurethane

Abstract

When heating coconut shells under free-oxygen atmosphere (pyrolysis), it provides products including biochar, fuel gas and bio-oil, which all can be further used. Nevertheless, the bio-oils obtained from biomass and also coconut shells generally have a low yield. To increase the bio-oil yield, copyrolysis with high carbon content materials such as synthetic polymers may be applied. In this research, copyrolysis of coconut shells and polyurethane, which was left in foam production industry with various ratios were conducted. From the results, it was found that polyurethane enhanced bio-oil yield for the coconut shells with at the ratio of 1:3 (coconut shell: polyurethane) providing the highest bio-oil yield (35.5 wt%). From the characterization with FTIR and UV-vis spectroscopy, it was found that the bio-oils from the copyrolysis had lower contents of oxygen compounds, which have adverse effects on usage.