Influence of particle size, reactor temperature and gas phase reactions on fast pyrolysis of beech wood

In the present work, a drop tube reactor (DTR) and a horizontal tubular reactor (HTR) were used to study the pyrolysis behaviour of beech wood particles of different sizes under the conditions encountered in industrial fluidized bed gasifiers, namely high external heat flux (105 - 106 W.m-2) and high temperature (800 - 1000°C). The influence of the reactor temperature (800 and 950°C), of particle size (from 350 m to 6 mm), and of gas residence time (from 1 to 10 s) were examined. Under the explored conditions, when pyrolysis is finished, more than 80 wt.% of virgin wood is converted into gas and less than 13 wt.% remains in solid. In the gas phase, CO is the main gaseous product (50 wt.% of virgin wood), followed by H2 (molar ratios of H 2/CO are between 0.35 to 0.55), H2O, CO2 and CH4. Species C2H2, C2H4, C2H6 and C6H6 are present in much lower amounts. The increase of temperature increases the rate of solid devolatilization and favours the cracking reactions of hydrocarbons. The increase of particle size increases the required time for completing pyrolysis. Meanwhile, the results obtained at 950°C show that the final products distribution at the end of pyrolysis is almost the same for the particles between 350 and 800 m. The increase of the particle size from 800 m to 6 mm seems to have some influence on the final products distribution. The gas phase reactions mainly change the yields of light hydrocarbons and H2: the increase of gas residence time favours the cracking reactions of hydrocarbons and thus leads to a higher H2 yield. Copyright © 2010 The Berkeley Electronic Press.