Abstract
Rice straw, produced as an agricultural by-product, is usable biomass as fuels if depolymerized to monomer unit, because the chemical structure are similar to high octane materials found in gasoline. In this study, parameters of thermochemical degradation by solvolysis reaction of rice straw such as the effect of reaction temperature, reaction time and type of solvent on conversion yield and degradation products were investigated. It was found that the effectiveness of the solvent on the solvolysis reaction was as follows; acetone>cresol>butanol. When acetone was used as a solvent, the highest rice straw conversion was observed to be 91.5% at $500^{\circ}C$, 40 min. Combustion heating value of liquid products from thermochemical conversion processes was in the range of 7,380 cal/g. The energy yield and mass yield in acetone-solvolysis of rice straw was as high as 69.0% and 38.2 g-oil/100g-raw material after 40 min of reaction at $350^{\circ}C$. Various aliphatic and aromatic compounds were detected in the rice straw solvolysis products. The major components of the solvolysis products, that could be used as fuel, were 4-methyl-2-pentanone, 3,5,5-trimethyl-2-cyclopentan-1-one as ketones.