Assessment of laurel (Laurus nobilis L.) seed as a renewable energy source for the production of biooil

In this thesis, the thermochemical conversion of sweet bay (Laurus nobilis L.) seed into renewable fuels was studied in fixed bed slow and fast pyrolysis reactor on bench scale. The experiments were performed in order to evaluate the effect of particle size, final pyrolysis temperature, heating rate and sweeping gas flow rate on pyrolysis conversion and products yield i.e. oil, char, gas. The data obtained on bench scale was also applied to the semi-pilot continuous flow moving bed pyrolysis reactor for an initiation of small scale conversion unit. Pyrolytic oil sample obtained at the conditions giving the highest oil yield was subjected to spectroscopic, chromatographic and some standard fuel quality analysis. The highest oil recovery was 44.89 % at the conditions of particle size between 0.600 and 0.850 mm, pyrolysis temperature at 500-600 °C, heating rate of 300 °C min'1 and nitrogen flow rate of 50 ml min"1. Sweet bay pyrolytic oil had compatible quality specifications to be used for power production.Keywords: Laurel (Laurus nobilis L.), Pyrolysis, Biomass, Renewable Energy