Is there synergy between carbonaceous material and biomass during conventional pyrolysis? A TG-FTIR approach

• Blends of biomass and activated carbon were pyrolyzed in TG-FTIR analyzer.
• Pyrolysis products and kinetic were affected by the presence of carbon.
• There is synergetic behavior between carbon and biomass in conventional pyrolysis.

The thermal decomposition of woody biomass in the temperature range of 25–800 °C and at heating rate of 25 °C/min was carried out in a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) coupled with fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. The woody biomass and activated carbon (AC) were blended in order to study the possible synergetic effect. The TG curves before and after subtracting the amount of AC from the blends was not similar. The decomposition rate of the biomass was slowed down due to the presence of AC in the blend as evident from DTG data. The main pyrolysis reaction zone was found in the temperature range of 300–400 °C. The values of activation energy of the blended biomass were not similar to their original biomass. The intensity of FTIR spectra for the gas generated from blended biomass also varied from the original biomass. This concludes that there was synergetic effect between carbon and biomass during pyrolysis.