Abstract

Biomass pyrolysis yields fuels and industrial feedstocks but generates large amounts of NOx precursors and is therefore of limited practical use. Herein, we use glutamic acid, histidine, and tyrosine as protein models and palmitic acid as a lipid model to explore the influence of lipids on the emission of NOx precursors during the pyrolysis of protein-rich biomass at various temperatures. The nitrogen-containing components of solid (coke), liquid (tar), and gaseous pyrolysis products were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and mass spectrometry, respectively, showing that lipids strongly influence the composition of liquid and gaseous products but not that of solid products. The main nitrogenated tar constituents produced in the absence of palmitic acid were identified as heterocycles and amines, whereas amides and nitriles were additionally generated in its presence. The palmitic acid had the most apparent effect on glutamic acid, generating about 34.16% of amides, followed by histidine, which yielded 9.17% amides and only 4.25% of tyrosine. Thus, our results indicate that the pyrolytic generation of NOx precursors from lipid-rich biomass such as sludge can be reduced by optimizing pyrolysis temperature and providing guidance for developing biomass pyrolysis technologies.

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