Fast pyrolysis behaviors of cedar in an infrared-heated fixed-bed reactor

Abstract

To explore fast pyrolysis behaviors of cedar biomass, the infrared heating technique with quick heating rate was taken in a fixed-bed reactor. The effects of heating rates (5-30 °C/s) and pyrolysis temperatures (400-600 °C) on pyrolysis products distribution and compositions were discussed, and the reaction mechanism was proposed. The results show that high heating rate can significantly suppress secondary reaction of primary volatiles. GC/FID and GC/MS analyses indicate that higher heating rate is favorable to the generation of glucose derivatives such as acids and furans. However, higher temperature can obviously promote further conversion of guaiacyl-contained structure following demethylation, demethoxylation and H/CH₃ assisted demethoxylation routes, which were proposed to interpret the formation of biphenolic hydroxyl and monophenolic hydroxyl compounds such as phenol, 2-methyl-phenol and 2,4-dimethyl-phenol, respectively. Moreover, the demethylation route exhibits obvious conversion advantage at higher temperature due to lower energy barrier.

Keywords: Biomass; Cedar; Fast pyrolysis; Guaiacyl; Infrared heating.