A Unified Biomass-Coal Pyrolysis Reaction Model

Abstract

A unified first order reaction rate model of pyrolysis is presented to facilitate co-utilization of domestic fuels (CDF) spanning the entire coalification region. This model was first used in interpretations of University of Florida laboratory and industrial scale coal-natural gas (C-NG) co-firing experiments using reaction rates based upon coal pyrolysis yields measured at MIT. After undertaking industrial-scale municipal solid waste, biomass, coal, and natural gas co-firing experiments, the pyrolysis model was used to interpret experiments with these fuels. The model is here adapted to represent ultra pyrolysis (UP) yields of cellulose measured at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) and fast pyrolysis (FP) yields of eight coals of various ranks measured at Tohoku University (TU). The overall goal is to find equations to calculate FP yields that depend upon the weight percentages [C], [H], and [O] of the feedstock, the a, b, and c of the chemical product (C a H b O c ), the temperature of pyrolysis (T), and the time (t) of application of this temperature. Such a unified model should be useful for many CDF applications and helpful in bringing order to the science of pyrolysis.