Characteristics and evolution of heavy components in bio-oil from the pyrolysis of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin

Abstract

Three main components of biomass were pyrolyzed individually in a closed reaction system at 500–700 °C for 60s and 90s. Then bio-oil heavy compounds were further analyzed with Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) and Kendrick mass defect (KMD) analysis. The evolution paths of heavy compounds for the different pyrolysis stages were proposed. It was found that the sugars and phenolic-like species in heavy compounds were the most active substances during secondary reactions. Moreover, the rising temperature promoted this secondary reaction of phenolic-like species as the decrease in their abundances growing from 13% to 54%, while contrarily inhibited it for hemicellulose as the decrease in their abundances changing from 44% to −2%. The lignin-derived lipids and unsaturated hydrocarbons that generated in the secondary reactions increased with rising temperature. KMD analysis showed that the heavy compounds of cellulose and hemicellulose prefer homologous evolution during pyrolysis, while those of lignin had more complex evolution paths like cracking and recombination.