Title: Intermediate pyrolysis campaign to assess products yield and quality varying biomass particles size, temperatures and composition

Authors: Marco Buffi; Andrea Maria Rizzo; Luigi Pari; David Chiaramonti

Addresses: RE-CORD and CREAR, c/o Dept of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, Florence, Italy ' RE-CORD, Florence, Italy ' CREA ING – Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria, Unità di Ricerca per l'Ingegneria Agraria, Rome, Italy ' RE-CORD and CREAR, c/o Dept of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

Abstract: Conversely to fast pyrolysis, in which the most abundant product is the pyrolysis oil, intermediate pyrolysis generates comparable amounts of solid, gaseous and liquid products. The present work reports the results of intermediate pyrolysis experiments of lignocellulosic biomass performed in a semi-continuous stirred bed reactor, rated for a nominal capacity up to 1.5 kg h-1 of biomass feed. Bio-oil properties resulted similar to commercial fast pyrolysis oil in terms of organic-rich fraction, but a lower yield was attained. The oil contains an unusual large amount of water, probably due to long residence time and the catalytic effect of the accumulated char into pyrolysis reactor. Char was characterised and evaluated for agriculture applications, while the permanent gases were measured and evaluated as energy carrier for the process itself. These data can potentially be used in the design and modelling of larger-scale unit. [Received: May 6, 2016; Accepted: January 28, 2017]

Keywords: biomass; pyrolysis; lignocellulosic; wood chips; bio-oil; char.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2018.090146

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2018 Vol.17 No.3, pp.355 - 373

Received: 06 May 2016
Accepted: 28 Jan 2017
Published online: 01 Mar 2018 *

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