Design Concept and Hydrodynamics of an Air-Blown Circulating Fluidized Bed Reactor for Biomass Flash Pyrolysis

Abstract

Amongst various thermochemical processes for the exploitation of biomass, flash pyrolysis is known to maximize liquid products yield. Flash pyrolysis is exerted in inert gaseous atmospheres, usually in entrained or fluidized bed reactor configurations. In order to utilize the energy content of char produced by pyrolysis, char is introduced to the lower zone of a novel reactor configuration, the heat released providing the energy to carry out biomass devolatilization. This paper summarizes the reactor concept and design considerations as well as provides experimental data derived from a cold model, which was constructed and operated in order to determine the hydrodynamic behaviour of the designed reactor.