The biomasses studied were wheat spent grains (WSG) and rape
seed meal (RSM), where the WSG was obtained from a pilot scale
brewer at University of Nottingham and RSM was obtained from
a local bio-diesel producer. The residues were oven-dried at
80 C for 3 days to remove moisture and subsequently ground below
500 lm using a rotor miller. A commercial bituminous coal,
namely Gregory was used for comparison with particles size below
2 mm.
2.2. Method
The pyrolysis experiments using RSM were carried out in the
temperature range 460–520 C. The pyrolysis of WSG was only carried
out at 520 C. All the pyrolysis experiments were carried out
under nitrogen atmosphere using a bench-scale fluidised bed reactor
shown in Fig. 1. About 5 g of sample was used and the bio-oil
was condensed using dry ice. The bio-oils generated were recovered
and water contained in the oils was removed using a rotavapor
at mild temperatures to avoid condensation reaction in the
bio-oil. The residue was recovered with hexane that was later removed
using room temperature evaporation. The bio-oils were further