Fast pyrolysis of Douglas fir by using tilted-slide reactor and characteristics of biocrude-oil fractions

• Fast pyrolysis of woody biomass was performed by using a tilted-slide reactor.
• The highest biocrude-oil yield was 61.9 wt.%.
• Biocrude-oil yield was varied by reaction temperature and biomass feeding rate.
• Biocrude-oils which had different quality were collected in each condenser.

A tilted-slide fast pyrolyzer was designed for the large-scale production of biocrude-oil. Woody biomass (Douglas fir) was fed into the reactor under different experimental conditions, including reaction temperature and biomass feeding rate, in order to study the biocrude-oil yield and its characteristics. One spray type condenser was used to condense the biocrude-oil by direct contact heat transfer and three shell and tube type condensers were used to collect biocrude-oil by indirect contact heat transfer. The highest biocrude-oil yield (61.9 wt.%) was obtained at 490 °C and a feeding rate of 12.5 kg/h, with most biocrude-oil was collected in the spray type condenser. The characteristics of the biocrude-oils obtained from each condenser were scrutinized and compared, and GC/MS analysis was also conducted to ascertain the chemical components of the biocrude-oil thus obtained.