Comprehensive Compositional Study of Torrefied Wood and Herbaceous Materials by Chemical Analysis and Thermoanalytical Methods

Abstract

In this work, the torrefaction of three biomass materials, black locust wood, wheat, and rape straw, was studied at various temperatures: 200, 225, 250, 275, and 300 °C. The thermal stability and formation of the decomposition products of the untreated and treated samples were measured by the thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry method. The degree of hemicellulose and cellulose decomposition during torrefaction at different temperatures was characterized by compositional analysis of the torrefied and untreated samples. The cellulose, hemicellulose, and Klason lignin contents of the raw and torrefied biomass samples were determined by acidic hydrolysis and subsequent high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. The inorganic ion contents of the untreated samples were measured by the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry method. The joint evaluation of the results obtained by various analytical methods revealed that the acidic side groups of hemicellulose were partially split off, while...