Biomass pyrolysis is a promising thermochemical method for producing renewable fuels and chemicals from biomass. Development of a fundamental understanding of biomass pyrolysis chemistry is difficult due to the multi-scale and multi-phase nature of the process; biomass length scales span 11 orders of magnitude and pyrolysis phenomena include solid, liquid, and gas phase chemistry in addition to heat and mass transfer [1]. These complexities have a significant effect on chemical product distributions [2]. Fundamental understanding of cellulose pyrolysis chemistry in the absence of heat/mass transfer limitations will allow for detailed chemical input-output models used to scale up and optimize biomass pyrolysis reactors. In this work, we describe the design of a new high temperature reactor used to study cellulose pyrolysis chemistry. The mechanisms and pathways of the primary reactions of cellulose pyrolysis, including solid-liquid-vapor transformations, are experimentally characterized. Our findings highlight the importance of mass transfer on cellulose pyrolysis chemistry and provide insight for the rational design of full-scale pyrolysis reactors. [1] Mettler, M. S., Vlachos, D., and Dauenhauer, P. J., Energy & Envrinmental Science, 2012, 5(7), 7797-7809 [2] Paulsen, A. D., Mettler, M. S., and Dauenhauer, P. J., Energy & Fuels, 2013, 27(4), 2126-2134 [3] Di Blasi, C., Prog. Energy Combust. Sci., 2008, 34, 47–90

Fundamental approaches to multiscale, multiphase phenomena in cellulose pyrolysis chemistry

249th National Meeting (2015)

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