Detailed Analysis of Residual Volatiles in Chars from the Pyrolysis of Biomass and Lignite

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Pyrolysis of biomass or coal, if operated at temperature high enough to complete tar evolution, is expected to give resulting char a tar-free nature. Use of such tar-free char instead of the original fuel in gasification would reduce or even completely eliminate the need for use of complex devices/mechanisms for tar/soot removal. Increasing pyrolysis temperature may not only decrease the content of residual tar in the char but also reduce its reactivity in the gasification. There is thus a range of optimum pyrolysis temperatures depending on the original fuel and type/mode of gasification, which yields char of suitable quality. In this work, a variety of char samples were prepared by pyrolysis (first pyrolysis) of three different woody biomass feedstock and a Victorian lignite with heating rate and peak temperature of 10 °C/min and 450–750 °C, respectively, and were further subjected to flash pyrolysis (second pyrolysis) at 920 °C. A gas-chromatography/ mass-spectrometry (GC/MS) detected more than 200 com...