Effects of Glucose on Nitrogen Retention and Transformation during Copyrolysis with Fiberboard Waste

Abstract

The fiberboard waste with about 10% adhesive as bonding materials will release a large amount of NOx into the atmosphere when being used for energy resources. To mitigate the emission, it is desirable to convert the waste biomass into material-based products, so that the N species could be possibly retained in the solids without being emitted into the air. Thus, this study aims to examine the effects of glucose addition on the N retention and migration in chars during the copyrolysis with fiberboard wastes, especially considering the N-doped solid char as a potential high value functional carbon material. The pyrolysis experiments were mainly conducted in a fixed-bed quartz reactor at various temperatures, and the resultant chars were subjected to XPS analysis and other characterizations. It was found that the introduction of glucose has significantly increased the N retentions by 2–3 times at all the examined temperatures compared to the pyrolysis of fiberboard alone. During the copyrolysis, the relative abundance of amine-N in char at 400 °C has greatly decreased, while 500 °C has seen only N-5 and N-6 remaining in the char. Therefore, the copyrolysis of fiberboard waste and glucose could considerably enhance the N retentions in chars as well as vary the transformation of N occurring forms by the reactions between the adhesive-derived volatiles and the O-containing groups from the decomposition of glucose.