Mechanism Study of Rice Straw Pyrolysis by Fourier Transform Infrared Technique

The pyrolysis mechanism of rice straw (RS) was investigated using a tube reactor with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analyzer. The results show that the maximum pyrolysis rate increases with increasing heating rate and the corresponding temperature also increases. The three-pseudocomponent model could describe the pyrolysis behavior of rice straw accurately. The main pyrolysis gas products are H2O, CO2, CO, CH4, HCHO (formaldehyde), HCOOH (formic acid), CH3OH (methanol), C6H5OH (phenol), etc. The releasing of H2O, CO2, CO and CH4 mainly focuses at 220-400°C. The H2O formation process is separated into two stages corresponding to the evaporation of free water and the formation of primary volatiles. The release of CO2 first increases with increasing temperature and gets the maximum at 309°C. The releasing behavior of CO is similar to H2O and CO2 between 200 and 400°C. The production of CH4 happens, compared to CO2 and CO, at higher temperatures of 275-400°C with the maximum at 309°C. When the temperature exceeds 200°C, hydroxyl and aliphatic C-H groups decrease significantly, while CO, olefinic CC bonds and ether structures increase first in the chars and then the aromatic structure develops with rising temperature. Above 500°C, the material becomes increasingly more aromatic and the ether groups decreases with an increase of temperature. The aromatization process starts at ≈350°C and continues to higher temperatures.