Spontaneous Aerosol Ejection: Origin of Inorganic Particles in Biomass Pyrolysis.
At high thermal flux and temperatures of approximately 500 °C, lignocellulosic biomass transforms to a reactive liquid intermediate before evaporating to condensable bio-oil for downstream upgrading to renewable fuels and chemicals. However, the existence of a fraction of nonvolatile compounds in condensed bio-oil diminishes the product quality and, in the case of inorganic materials, catalyzes undesirable aging reactions within bio-oil. In this study, ablative pyrolysis of crystalline cellulose was evaluated, with and without doped calcium, for the generation of inorganic-transporting aerosols by reactive boiling ejection from liquid intermediate cellulose. Aerosols were characterized by laser diffraction light scattering, inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy, and high-speed photography. Pyrolysis product fractionation revealed that approximately 3 % of the initial feed (both organic and inorganic) was transported to the gas phase as aerosols. Large bubble-to-aerosol size ratios and visualization of significant late-time ejections in the pyrolyzing cellulose suggest the formation of film bubbles in addition to the previously discovered jet formation mechanism.
['Teixeira|Andrew R|AR|', 'Gantt|Rachel|R|', 'Joseph|Kristeen E|KE|', 'Maduskar|Saurabh|S|', 'Paulsen|Alex D|AD|', 'Krumm|Christoph|C|', 'Zhu|Cheng|C|', 'Dauenhauer|Paul J|PJ|']
D000336:Aerosols D018533:Biomass D002482:Cellulose D007287:Inorganic Chemicals D010316:Particle Size D013696:Temperature D014835:Volatilization
aerosols biomass pyrolysis cellulose calcium