Fast Pyrolysis of African and European Lignocellulosic Biomasses Using Py-GC/MS and Fluidized Bed Reactor

Abstract

Five biomasses spruce ( Picea abies L.), beech ( Fagus sylvatica L.), iroko ( Chlophora excelsa L.), albizia ( Albizia adianthifolia L.), and corncob ( Zea mays ssp. ) have been subjected to analytical pyrolysis (Py-GC/MS) and bench-scale pyrolysis with a fluidized bed reactor at 470 °C. The comparison of Py-GC/MS and bench scale results revealed only small differences in the relative concentration of single products mainly acetic acid, hydroxyacetaldehyde, hydroxypropanone, and lignin-derived guaiacyl and syringyl components. For European woods, organic oil yields were approximately 57%, whereas African biomasses yielded between 41 and 48% because of their higher mineral contents. The analysis of bio-oil composition revealed no significant differences between African and European biomasses. Acetic acid, hydroxyacetaldehyde, hydroxypropanone, and levoglucosan were found to be the largest individual components in the volatiles. Bio-oil from corncob, having the lowest lignin content contained high concentration of 4-vinyl-phenol, a lignin derived product. This implied that the degradation products largely depend on the constituents’ structure of the biomass. The higher heating value of all bio-oils ranged 16−17 MJ/kg.