Abstract
This paper provides a review of pyrolysis technologies, focusing on reactor designs and companies commercializing these technologies. The renewed interest in pyrolysis is driven by the potential to convert lignocellulosic materials into bio-oil and biochar and the use of these intermediates for the production of biofuels, biochemicals, and engineered biochars for environmental services. This review presents slow, intermediate, fast, and microwave pyrolysis as complementary technologies that share some commonalities in their designs. While slow pyrolysis technologies (traditional carbonization kilns) use wood trunks to produce char chunks for cooking, fast pyrolysis systems process small particles to maximize bio-oil yield. The realization of the environmental issues associated with the use of carbonization technologies and the technical difficulties of operating fast pyrolysis reactors using sand as the heating medium and large volumes of carrier gas, as well as the problems with refining the resulting hi...
Highlights
The practice of carbonizing wood to manufacture char has existed for as long as human history has been recorded[1,2,3,4,5]
Fast pyrolysis reactors typically operate with very small particles to achieve high heating rates (>1000°C/s) inside the particles and high bio-oil yields
This section reviews the most common fast pyrolysis reactors (Figure 7) that have been developed intending to optimize the yields of bio-oil
Summary
The practice of carbonizing wood to manufacture char has existed for as long as human history has been recorded[1,2,3,4,5]. In the 19th century the “acid-wood industry”, known as the “wood distillation industry” was established[9] to produce charcoal and liquid by-products (e.g. acetic acid, methanol and acetone). 40 people in developing nations use charcoal as domestic fuel[26,27,28,29,30,31]. Charcoal produced using sustainable managed resources and 54 improved pyrolysis technologies has the potential to reduce emissions by 80 % 26. Despite the growing interest to produce bio-oil and char, the disperse information on pyrolysis technologies and manufacturers hinders the development of this industry. This work is an attempt to present all pyrolysis reactors in a single document within a historical perspective intending that the 53 knowledge and experience generated through centuries could serve as inspiration for the development of new designs
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