The pyrolytic mechanism of the main components in woody biomass and their interactions

Abstract

The global demand of the volume of woody biomass (such as wood, logging residue, sawdust and so on) is huge and increased annually, due to its new application for the
energy/fuel production during recent years. Pyrolysis is termed as a promising thermo-chemical technology to convert woody biomass to liquid, gas and solid fuels/chemicals. The better understanding of the pyrolysis mechanism of woody biomass is demanding considering the thermal performance of individual components (hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin) and their interactions. In order to develop the current understanding of the pyrolysis of the individual components (hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin) in woody biomass and fill the knowledge gap on their interactions under pyrolytic conditions, the on-line pyrolysis and off-line pyrolysis study of the model compounds of the components and their “synthesized biomass” samples has been extensively investigated employing TGA-FTIR and fast pyrolysis unit, in terms of the mass loss variation against temperature together with the on-line identification of the evolved volatiles by FTIR, yield of pyrolyzed products (gas, bio-oil and char) from the fast pyrolysis unit, variation of the compositions in bio-oil and gas products against the fluidized-bed-reactor temperature, the chemical pathways for the chemical structure change of the macromolecules and the cracking of the primary fragments, and the interactions among the chemical components. The proposed chemical pathways, indicating the possible competitive and/or consecutive relationship among the prominent compounds in bio-oil and gaseous product, give hints to improve the current kinetic scheme of the individual components. Notably, the vapor-phase interaction among the components in the fluidized-bed reactor is investigated in terms of the product yield and variation of the prominent compounds in bio-oil and gaseous product, but their interactions in solid/liquid phase are not involved.

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