Combustion behaviours of tobacco stem in a thermogravimetric analyser and a pilot-scale fluidized bed reactor

► We propose an effective approach to exploit tobacco stem in large scale. ► The combustion reaction consists of burning of volatile and char. ► We investigate the temperature distribution and combustion efficiency. ► Different agglomeration behaviors were performed when using various bed materials. ► An alternative bed material is proposed to mitigate the agglomeration problems.