Heat requirement for fixed bed pyrolysis of beechwood chips

J. Ábrego, M. Atienza-Martínez, F. Plou and J. Arauzo

Energy, 2019, vol. 178, issue C, 145-157

Abstract: The evaluation of heat of pyrolysis reactions at conditions relevant to the industrial practice is of great importance from the point of view of reactor design. Here, the evolution of heat during the pyrolysis of beechwood chips was experimentally measured in a lab-scale fixed bed pyrolysis system. Wood was heated and pyrolyzed by means of heat transferred from a mass of surrounding inert material (sand) initially heated at temperatures between 400 and 800 °C. Monitoring the evolution of temperatures in the system allowed calculation of heat for pyrolysis (QP) as a function of wood bed temperature. At pyrolysis conditions where slow heating rates of the wood bed are realized, changes in QP were clearly linked to the decomposition of the individual constituents of biomass (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin), with consecutive exothermic and endothermic stages. When high temperature gradients were present, these stages were simultaneous and QP continuously increased with temperature, reaching 550 kJ kg−1. Under these circumstances, a correlation is provided for QP (T) up to 556 °C. The enthalpy of the pyrolysis reactions (ΔHP) was also estimated. Results show good coincidence with previously reported literature values. The proposed experimental system could be useful for determining heat requirements of pyrolysis under different operational conditions.

Keywords: Biomass pyrolysis; Heat for pyrolysis; Lab-scale fixed bed pyrolysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036054421930711X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:178:y:2019:i:c:p:145-157

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.04.078

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().