A review on the microwave-assisted pyrolysis technique

Pyrolysis is a promising bioconversion technique for energy recovery, waste management, and converting biomass into useful energy products which has attracted considerable attention during the past decades. Char/carbonaceous residue, bio-oil, and syngas are the three main products of the pyrolysis process. The pyrolysis technique is one of the major barriers for large-scale commercialization of this method. This study strives to extensively review the recent work on microwave-assisted technology applied to the pyrolysis process as a way of cost reduction. The fundamentals of microwave irradiation and a brief background of pyrolysis are presented. Additionally, biomass resources which can be the raw material for pyrolysis process have been categorized and reviewed in this paper. The effectual parameters of the microwave-assisted pyrolysis process and advantages of this technique have been summarized. It is concluded that microwave-assisted technology is an effectual method to reduce the pyrolysis reaction time and increases the quality of value-added products from different kinds of feedstocks. In addition, this technique can overcome the needs of feedstock shredding and improves the quality of heating as well. Therefore, it can be a suitable method for decreasing the pyrolysis processing cost and a pathway out of poverty for developing countries. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.