Fuel-N Evolution during the Pyrolysis of Industrial Biomass Wastes with High Nitrogen Content

Energies

Hongfang Chen²  Yin Wang¹  Guangwen Xu³ 

[1] Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; E-Mail:;Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, G5-8, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan; E-Mail:;Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Zhongguancun North Second Street, Beijing 100190, China

关键词: Fuel-N;    industrial biomass wastes;    pyrolysis;    NO_x precursors;    Tar-N;    Char-N;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en5125418

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In this study, sewage sludge and mycelial waste from antibiotic production were pyrolyzed in a batch scale fixed-bed reactor as examples of two kinds of typical industrial biomass wastes with high nitrogen content. A series of experiments were conducted on the rapid pyrolysis and the slow pyrolysis of these wastes in the temperature range from 500–800°C to investigate the Fuel-N transformation behavior among pyrolysis products. The results showed that Fuel-N conversion to Char-N intimately depended on the pyrolysis temperature and the yield of Char-N reduced with the increase of the pyrolysis temperature. Under the same pyrolysis conditions, Tar-N production mainly depended on complex properties of the different biomasses, including volatile matter, nitrogen content and biomass functional groups. HCN was the predominant NO_x precursor in the rapid pyrolysis of biomass, whereas in the slow pyrolysis of mycelial waste, more NH₃ was produced than HCN due to the additional NH₃ formation through the hydrogenation reaction of Char-N, HCN and H radicals. At the same time, some part of the char was analyzed by Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to get more information on the nitrogen functionality changes and the tar was also characterized by Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) to identify typical nitrogenous tar compounds. Finally, the whole nitrogen distribution in products was discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.