Abstract
Conversion experiments of wet and dry walnut shells were performed, the influence of moisture content on the hydrogen yield in the gas fraction was estimated and the resulted biochar structure was presented. Measurements of the biochar structures were performed using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy methods. The results demonstrate that heating rate played a key role in the pyrolysis process and influenced the biochar structure. Under fast heating rate, the interactions between the water vapors released and other intermediate products, such as biochar was enhanced and consequently more hydrogen was generated. It could also be observed that both biochar samples, obtained from wet and dry walnut shells, had an approximately smooth surface and are different from the rough surface of the raw walnut shell, but there are not obvious differences in shape and pores structure between the two biochar samples. The increasing of the biochar surface area versus pyrolysis temperature is due tothe formation of micropores in structure. The biochar shows a surface morphology in the form of particles with rough, compact and porous structure. In addition the biochar structure confirmed that directly pyrolysis of wet walnut shells without predried treatment has enhanced the hydrogen content in the gas fraction.