Abstract
The utilization of livestock manure for biochar production has received much attention mainly due to the greenhouse gases mitigation and crop/fertilizer production. In this work, a novel biomass, horse manure, was performed at the temperature range of 673–1073 K and different residence times from 0 to 60 min by a vertical fixed-bed pyrolyzer. The thermochemical properties of the biochar products, including elemental analysis and calorific value, were investigated.
Furthermore, the information about structural characteristics was also obtained by means of true density and scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the calorific value of the resulting biochar was on increasing trend with temperature, while its maximal increase occurred at around 773–873 K. This result was in high agreement with its variation in carbon content. By contrast, the contents of hydrogen and oxygen decreased slightly due to the devolatilization because of thermal decomposition reactions like depolymerization and carbonization.
On the other hand, the true density of the biochar product increased with temperature, making it significant in the structural shrinkage. The manure-derived biochar revealed an excellent characterization with high content of carbon, low contents of nitrogen and ash, and traces of sulfur and heavy metals, suggesting an available use as solid fuel.