Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Influence of loblolly pine anatomical fractions and tree age on oil yield and composition during fast pyrolysis

Journal Article · · Sustainable Energy & Fuels
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/d4se01252f· OSTI ID:2496622
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [1]
  1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  2. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Fast pyrolysis of woody materials is a technology pathway for producing renewable fuels and chemicals. This is a presentation of isolating needles, bark, and stemwood from a single tree as well as isolating stemwood and whole tree samples from the same species of tree with different ages and pyrolyzing each individually as well as in mixtures. This gives insight into the role of tree anatomical fractions on the resulting intermediate oil product as well as into interactions between these components. The highest carbon content oil (45.1 wt% as received) was produced from a one-to-one mixture of stemwood and needles, followed by the pure stemwood (43.4–43.8 wt% as received), while the lowest oil carbon content was from a one-to-one blend of bark and needles (26.7 wt% as received). The pyrolysis oil yield (combining oil and aqueous where separation occurred) varied from 54 wt% as received (needles) to 72.3 wt% as received (stemwood). When comparing trees of different ages, we find the change in the ratio of the anatomical fractions is a dominant factor in the product composition and yields, while the product composition and yields vary slightly with tree age when only the stemwood is pyrolyzed. Here, in this study, we present the bench-scale pyrolysis, yields, and product characterization of loblolly pine feedstocks (13- vs. 23 year-old, residues, air-classified residues, whole tree, needles, bark, and stemwood).

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
2496622
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2502184
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5100-89691; MainId:90470; UUID:0fd12d11-a143-4343-abbd-0a3fe2df3403; MainAdminId:75648
Journal Information:
Sustainable Energy & Fuels, Journal Name: Sustainable Energy & Fuels Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 9; ISSN 2398-4902
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English