Physico chemical characterization of Biochar products from Jatropha

curcas L. shells, press cake and solid biogas digestate

*Shkelqim Karaja, Kanyaporn Chaiwongb, Claudia Maurera, Klaus Meissnera, Tanongkiat
b
a
Kiatsiriroat , Joachim Mller
a

Institute of Agricultural Engineering in the Tropics and Subtropics, Universitt

Hohenheim, Stuttgart 70599, Germany

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ching Mai University,

Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
Keywords: Biochar, Jatropha curcas L., digestate, physical chemical properties.
Hemicellulose (%)

Introduction

35.40

55.31

57.47

Biochar is the solid product gained from

thermo - chemical process. Biochar can be
produced from biological materials such as
wood and wood waste, energy crops, aquatic
plants, and their waste by-products [1, 4].
The common thermo-chemical process used
for biochar production is the pyrolysis, where
thermal energy reacts with biomass under O2
limiting control and produces biochar [2].
The pyrolysis can be classified based on
different variables such as temperature reactor
control, kind of biomass, particle size, biomass
flow rate and heating rate, where heating rate
could be classified into slow pyrolysis and fast
pyrolysis [2]. In general under the condition of
slow pyrolysis is achieved maximum yield of
biochar, the reaction at lower to medium
pyrolyse temperature (450 650 C) and
slower heating rate [3, 4, 5].
The objective of this study was to investigate
the physical and chemical parameters of biochar
produced from Jatropha curcas L. shells, press
cake residues and solid biogas digestate.
Biochar apparatus was constructed at
Universitt Hohenheim and via muffle oven
pyrolyse process was conducted. Four different
temperatures (300 C, 500 C, 700 C and
900 C) and three different N - ratios (100 cm
min-1, 150 cm min-1 and 200 cm min-1) were
alternated with J. curcas shells (JSH), J. curcas
press cake (JPC) and solid biogas digestate
(SBD).

The biochar from different substrates were

investigated
for
their
physico-chemical
characteristics like: pH, conductivity, specific
gravity, bulk density, porosity, moisture content,
ash content, volatile matter, fixed carbon,
surface area, ion exchange capacity, solubility in
water and the nutrients sodium, potassium,
calcium, phosphorus and iodine number.
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images for
surface morphology and pore formation were
conducted for each biochar substrate before and
after pyrolyse. Physico-chemical characteristic
and SEM pictures showed the pore formation
and potential use of biochar in agriculture and
forest soils.

Table 1. Raw material chemical composition.

Figure 1. Temperatures generated during

pyrolyse process of biochar production.

Raw material
N (%)
C (%)
Lignin (%)
Cellulose (%)

JSH
1.02
47.10
35.06
29.54

JPC
3.01
46.76
21.17
23.52

SBD
2.90
36.19
28.49
14.04

Results and Discussion

Figure 1 show temperature generated vs. time
required for biochar production of analysed
substrate.

Highest temperature of 900 C (muffle oven)

requires about 75 min. of processing time for
biochar production, where lowest temperature of
300 C about 175 min. The time of end process
was determined by observing the pyrolyse

gasses, when no more gas was generated from

the reactor the process was shut down and the
reactor was extinguished with water.
Biochar production of JSH, JPC and SBD is
depict in Figure 2. Total biochar yield was
decreasing
with
increase
of
pyrolyse
temperatures; highest biochar yield was
achieved with reactor temperature of 300 C and
lowest with 900 C respectively.

Figure 2. Biochar production of JSH, JPC and

SBD substrates with different pyrolyse
temperatures, 300, 500, 700, and 900 C
respectively.
Organic biochar compounds were higher for
JSH and JPC than SBD. There was more than
80 % of biochar production consisting on organic
compounds for JSH and JPC and about 50 %
organics on SBD. These mean, that SBD has
more inorganic materials such as minerals and
salts than JSH and JPC [4].
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images
show formation of pores from biochar particles
(Figure 3). Jatropha shells (JSH) shows fibrous
uniform pores with maximal 20 m size, whereas
Jatropha press cake (JPC) and solid biogas
digestate (SBD) show formation of macro and
micro pores ranking from 10 to 60 m size.

Figure 3. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

images of biochar particles produced with
temperature of 900 C. Left to right: JSH, JPC
and SBD biochar.

Conclusion
This study investigated the physical and
chemical parameters of biochar produced from
JSH, JPC and SBD within the range of reactor
temperature from 300 to 900 C and N-ration of
100 to 200 cm min-1.
Biochar could be obtained from biomass
pyrolyse
process.
Higher
the
reactor
temperature shorter was the time for biochar
production. If the objective was to maximize the
yield, low reactor temperatures would be chosen.
When the pyrolyse temperature increased the
biochar yield decreased. Organic biochar
production was higher for JSH and JPC than
SBD for the same reactor temperature.
Biochar products are generally considered to
be porous materials that can improve soil
physical properties such as soil texture and
holding capacity. Results of SEM images
indicate the formation of pores with various sizes,
where JSH has more uniform pores than other
substrates.
Acknowledgements
The preparation of these experiments was
supported from Universitt Hohenheim, Institute
for Agricultural Engineering in Tropic and
Sub-tropic.
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