Kinetic investigation of wood pyrolysis

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1981 · Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Des. Dev.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/i200014a015· OSTI ID:5165580

Thurner, F; Mann, U

The kinetics of wood pyrolysis into gas, tar, and char was investigated in the range of 300 to 400 degrees Celcius at atmospheric pressure. An experimental system which facilitates the monitoring of the actual sample temperature, collection of gas and tar, and measurement of the sample weight loss as a function of time was developed. It has been found that, in the range investigated, wood decomposition into gas, tar, and char can be described by three parallel first-order reactions as suggested by Shafizadeh and Chin (1977). The activation energies for these reactions are 88.6, 112.7 and 106.5 kJ/mol, respectively, and their frequency factors defined on a mass basis are 8.61 x 10 to the power of 5, 2.47 x 10 to the power of 8, and 4.43 x 10 to the power of 7 min-1. The composition of the pyrolysis products was also analyzed. It was found that the gas consists mainly of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, oxygen, and C3 + compounds with trace amounts of methane, ethylene, and acetylene. The tar consists of seven compounds with levoglucosan accounting for more than half. The char was analyzed by elemental analysis and it was found that its carbon content increases with increasing reactor temperature. (Refs. 12).

• Research Organization: Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech. Univ., Lubbock, Texas
• OSTI ID: 5165580
• Journal Information: Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Des. Dev.; (United States), Journal Name: Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Des. Dev.; (United States) Vol. 20:3; ISSN IEPDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
090122 -- Hydrocarbon Fuels-- Preparation from Wastes or Biomass-- (1976-1989)
140504* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Biomass Production & Conversion-- (-1989)
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHARS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
FLUIDS
GASES
KINETICS
MEDIUM TEMPERATURE
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PYROLYSIS
PYROLYSIS PRODUCTS
TAR
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
WOOD