Investigation on co-gasification of N-rich fiberboard and glucose: Nitrogen evolution and changes in char properties

Abstract

Waste wood-based panels (WBPs) with high nitrogen content is a typical kind of industrial biomass waste, and a large amount of NOx will be generated during its incineration treatment. Therefore, this work is aimed at studying the retention and conversion characteristics of nitrogen in gasification char of WBPs. For fixing more nitrogen in char, co-gasification experiments of fiberboard (FB, the main kind of WBPs) and glucose were carried out using a fixed bed reactor, and the subsequent analysis was conducted by element analyzer, XPS, SEM and BET. The results show that the addition of glucose could efficiently fix nitrogen in gasification char, the nitrogen retention ratios of FB-glucose char under N2 and CO2 atmosphere were 2.6–5.6 times and 1.4–2.0 times greater than that of individual FB char, respectively, due to the enhanced Maillard reaction. As the temperature increased, the portions of N-5 and N-6 decreased along with the formation of N-Q and N–O. Moreover, the addition of glucose led to the delay of the conversion from N-5 and N-6 to N-Q and N–O in char. BET results demonstrate that the surface area and total pore volume of co-gasified char were significantly lower than those of individual FB gasified char. The glucose had a negative effect on the pore structure development of co-gasified char. These results could offer strategies on reducing NOx emission in biomass thermal conversion and regulating nitrogen functional groups in biochar.