Fast pyrolysis processes that convert woody biomass to pyrolysis oils and ultimately upgraded fuels are sensitive to thermal properties of the biomass, which in turn are dependent upon a number of factors, including wood species, density, grain orientation, temperature, and moisture content. This work measures thermal conductivity and specific heat for several woody materials, including pines and poplars, at room temperature, 300 °C, and 500 °C using a hot disk transient plane source instrument. These parameters, which are very important for pyrolysis models, are available for very few materials at temperatures hotter than 200 °C. Bulk thermal conductivity measurements for pine and poplar were shown to decrease up to 33% with increasing temperature when heated from room temperature through 500 °C. Specific heat also decreased with increasing temperature with the most significant decrease occurring at temperatures hotter than 300 °C.

Thermal properties of pine, poplar, and fir blocks from room temperature to 500°C

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.