(533a) Effects of Feedstock, Collection Method and Post-Condensation Filtration on the Stability of Pyrolysis Oil

The physical and chemical properties of the pyrolysis oil have been shown to be dependent on the feedstock composition. Forced aging tests were performed to understand the effects of feedstock, collection method and post-condensation filtration on the stability of pyrolysis oil. In this study, properties of pyrolysis oil produced using different ratios of pine clear wood and pine bark were measured and compared. The pyrolysis oil samples used for the study were produced using an auger reactor with multiple condensers. For each feedstock, three different fractions of the pyrolysis oil were collected by collecting from one or more of the condensers: total, fraction 1, and fraction 2.To understand the effects of post-condensation filtration both lab-scale and pilot scale centrifuge were used. The Pilot scale centrifuge can be used as a three-phase separator [Light liquid-Heavy liquid-Solids] or a two-phase clarifier [Liquid-Solid]. The pyrolysis oil is a micro emulsion of oil and water which makes it difficult to separate water from the oil. So Emulsion destabilization studies were performed on the lab-scale centrifuge. The effect of feed temperature on the separation efficiency of the pilot-plant centrifuge was also studied. Samples were characterized to determine the physical properties such as water content, pH, density, viscosity, and solids content. For chemical characterization, FTIR spectroscopy was utilized to identify the functional groups present in the samples. Optical microscopy was used to determine the particle size distributions of solids in these samples.