Experimental Research on Pyrolysis Process About Corn Stalk and Rice Husks

Pyrolysis is one of the most promising conversion routes for biomass utilization, wherein biomass can be converted to solids, liquids and permanent gases, which are all used as a fuel. Researchers have proved that non-condensable gases can be translated into electric power by the gas turbine unites and liquid fuels can be used in vehicles after refined. In this paper, we mainly researched the distribution properties of pyrolysis products, as well as the characteristics of permanent gases under different reaction temperature and residence time. The experiments prove that the main process of prolysis is the transformation of biomass to liquid at low temperature. Along with the increase of reaction temperature, hydrocarbons further crack into small-molecule gases, so the whole reaction gradually changes into the production of permanent gases. The results show that the reaction temperature which is closely related with the compositions of permanent gases has a more important influence on the pyrolysis products than the residence time. With the increase in the reaction temperature, the volume content of H2 rises sharply, while CO and CO2 both decrease obviously in the volume content. Meanwhile the volume content of CH4 increases slightly, especially when the temperature is lower than 500°C. And the highest volume content of light hydrocarbons achieves at about 500°C. As the reaction temperature changes from 400°C to 500°C, the LHV of permanent gases increases from 12.5MJ/Nm3 to 16MJ/Nm3 . When the temperature exceeds 500°C, the LHV of permanent gases changes gently in a range of 16∼17 MJ/Nm3 .Copyright © 2008 by ASME