Experimental investigation of biomass pyrolysis mechanism using cellulose as a model compound

Abstract

The drive to reduce greenhouse emissions and the dependence on fossil fuels has produced considerable interest in the use of biomass energy. Gasification of biomass is given attention since the process is simple and clean. It is necessary for optimum designing of biomass gasifier to understand the behavior of pyrolysis and to couple pyrolysis reaction rates of biomass with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). The purpose of this study is to know the behavior of biomass pyrolysis and to fomulate chemical reaction rates of pyrolysis products under the high heating rate (5 K/s). The major component of wood, cellulose, was pyrolyzed at temperature raging from 250 to 700°C. Cellulose was pyrolyzed at temperature raging from 250 to 700°C. Also, biomass pyrolysis was applied to a first-order Arrhenius type kinetic model. It was found that calculated value could reasonably represent the yields of gas, tar, water and main gas spices (CO and CO2). Therefore we could propose reaction rates of primary reaction, which predicted quantity of biomass pyrolysis products.