Product characterization of fast pyrolysis

Pyrolysis is an important step in the thermal conversion of biomass. During this study, the influence of temperature, heating rate and holding time on fast pyrolysis volatile product yields were investigated. The focus was mainly on the precursors of NOx (NH3, HCN and HNCO), since most biomass contains a considerable amount of nitrogen and the knowledge on the formation of the NOx precursors in biomass is limited. The studied types of biomass are dry distillers grain with solubles (DDGS) and palm kernel cake (PKC). For this purpose, a heated grid reactor was used, that was designed and used before in the work of Gianluca Di Nola. Because of the limited means to determine the temperature within the reactor and possible differences between the measured and actual temperature, a CFD model of the reactor was made.