Stepwise isothermal fast pyrolysis (SIFP) of biomass: Part 1. SIFP of pine sawdust

Abstract

Pyrolysis of pine wood sawdust was carried out using stepwise isothermal fast pyrolysis (SIFP), focusing on the search of reaction conditions to obtain chemicals in good yields from biomass. SIFP consists of successive isothermal fast pyrolysis reactions, where solid products obtained in the previous isothermal fast pyrolysis become the substrate of the subsequent reaction at a higher temperature. This article reports results obtained by SIFP of pine sawdust between 200 and 600°C using 100°C intervals under vacuum (0.2 mm), using nitrogen as carrier gas. Both sets of reactions made it possible to obtain most of the compounds that have been previously described in conventional fast pyrolysis experiments; however this system produces a smaller number of chemical compounds in each isothermal FP, making it easier to obtain determined chemicals with industrial or research value. Maximum yield of liquid products occurred at 300°C, giving around 30% of bio-oil, which contained mainly phenols and furan derivatives. Liquid-Liquid extraction led to a rich mixture of phenol derivatives. Results showed that SIFP is an interesting technique to obtain enriched fractions of products derived from biomass pyrolysis.