Fast pyrolysis of Miscanthus sinensis in fluidized bed reactors: Characteristics of product yields and biocrude oil quality

In the present work, fast pyrolysis of Miscanthus sinensis was performed and the product yields and properties of the resulting biocrude oil were determined for varying reactor configurations and pyrolysis temperatures. Two types of reactors (rectangular and cylindrical fluidized beds) were adopted, and pyrolysis temperature was increased from 400 °C to 550 °C. Based on the results, it was found that the reaction temperature greatly influenced the product yield and the characteristics of biocrude oil. The highest yield of biocrude oil for the rectangular reactor was 48.9 wt.%, produced at 500 °C, and the highest yield for the cylindrical reactor was 50.01 wt.%, produced at 450 °C. Additionally, the biocrude oil yield in the rectangular reactor sharply decreased when reaction temperature was increased to 550 °C, while only a slight decrease was observed in the cylindrical reactor. From GC/MS analysis, biocrude oil was found to contain various chemical components, such as nonaromatic ketones, furans, sugars, lignin-derived phenols, guaiacols and syringols. In particular, the sugar content of the biocrude oil produced in rectangular reactor (2.11-9.35 wt.%) was generally lower than that produced in the cylindrical reactor (7.93-10.79 wt.%).