Pyrolysis of Lignocellulosic Biomass from Northeast China

The pyrolytic decomposition study of four species of lignocellulosic biomass (pine, poplar, bass and birch) from the Northeast China was carried out by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) under the temperature range from 30 to 800°C in the N₂ atmosphere at four heating rates (ß) of 10,20,40 and 60°C/min. The non-isothermal weight loss process of the above biomass samples was mainly composed of dehydration, rapid weight loss and slow weight loss, with the main pyrolysis reaction occurring in the temperature scope of 211~432°C. The temperature for the initialization of volatiles (T_s) and peak weight loss temperature (T_p) were between 211~273°C and 348~395°C respectively. Peak weight loss rate (R_p) was in the scope of 340~2759¿g · min^-1. The apparent activation energy (E) and pre-exponential factor (A) were between 36.83~57.30 kJ/mol and 1.0 × 10² ~2.5 × 10³ min, respectively. It was shown that T_s, T_p and R_p got higher with the increase of ß, T_p and R_p being positively proportional to ß and almost exhibiting linearity. It can be concluded from the results that the reaction mechanism and process of biomass pyrolysis can be changed by the alteration of ß.