Effects of Lignocellulosic Compounds on the Yield, Nanostructure and Reactivity of Soot from Fast Pyrolysis at High Temperatures

Gasification offers the utilization of biomass to a wide variety of applications such as heat, electricity, chemicals and transport fuels in an efficient and sustainable manner. High soot yields in the high-temperature entrained flow gasification lead to intensive gas cleaning and can cause a possible plant shut down. The reduction of soot formation increases the overall production system efficiency and improves the economic feasibility and reliability of the gasification plant. The aim of this work is to present the effect of lignocellulosic compoundson the yield, nanostructure and reactivity of soot. Soot was produced from holocelluloses, extractives, two types of organosolv lignin (softwood and wheat straw), and lignin-derived compounds (syringol, guaiacol, p-hydroxyphenol)at temperature of 1250°Cand residence time of 0.17 sand 0.35 sin a drop tube furnace.Soxhlet extraction was performed on soot samples from pyrolysis of both lignin samplesusing acetone and methanol as a solvent.The structure of solid residues was characterized by transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The reactivity of soot inO2oxidation and CO2gasificationwas investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. The present results indicated that soot yields from pyrolysis of ligninfrom softwood and extractives at 1250°C with the residence time of 0.17 swere similaras shown in Figure 1. The highest soot yield was obtained from pyrolysis of wheat straw lignin and quantitatively comparable with the soot yield of hydroquinone. The presence of hydroxyl groups compared to other lignin-derived compounds representing S-and G-lignin types might enhance the soot formation.Lower soot yields were obtained from pyrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulosedue to the lower presence of inherent aromatic rings [1-3].Moreover, the soot yields from pyrolysis of potassium impregnated lignin at 1250°C with the residence time of 0.35 swere significantly lower than that of non-treated lignin samples indicating the catalytic influence of potassium inhibitinggrowth of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, confirming the previous results of Umeki et al. [4