Experimental investigation of biomass waste (rice straw, cotton stalk, and pine sawdust) pyrolysis characteristics

Abstract

Several types of biomass wastes were pyrolyzed with an atmospheric pressure TGA apparatus and a self-made fixed-bed reactor. The weight-loss curve from TGA based on different reference samples and final product distribution as well as gas composition from the fixed-bed reactor are presented here. TGA results indicate that biomass pyrolysis can be identified as 3 phases, i.e., moisture evaporation, main devolatilization, and continuous devolatilization; the reference sample has a slight influence on the weight loss of the biomass sample; different biomass samples can lead to the same tread of its weight-loss curve, but a different amount of weight loss. Fixed-bed pyrolysis results show that producer gas is a very important product, up to 60 wt%, and H2 and CO account for more than 60 vol%. The producer gas is hereby thought of as a high quality gas source, with a heating value of 13,000-14,000 kJ/Nm3 and a low tar concentration.