(610g) Particle-Surface Interactions of High Temperature Pyrolyzing Cellulose

Biomass pyrolysis is a promising method for renewable production of liquid fuels and chemicals. At high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, woody biomass transforms into an intermediate liquid before evaporating to form a condensable bio-oil product, which can be further upgraded into fuels and chemicals [1]. The chemistry of pyrolyzing biomass constituents such as cellulose presents a major research challenge, as effects of heat and mass transfer complicate the study of hundreds of solid, gas, and liquid phase reactions and can strongly alter product distributions [2,3]. Despite ongoing research, variability between reactor types and sizes remains a major challenge [4]. In this work, a particle-level understanding of heat transfer into cellulose is developed via high-speed photography of heated particles on various heated surfaces. It is shown that heat transfer rates into pyrolyzing cellulose particles vary by over an order of magnitude across common pyrolysis temperatures and have a strong effect on particle-surface interactions. Additionally, heat transfer rates can be tuned by choice of surface material and material characteristics such as porosity. Improved understanding of particle-level surface interactions of pyrolyzing cellulose allows for directed design of the next generation of pyrolysis reactors capable of improving bio-oil product quality.

[1] Dauenhauer, P. J.; Colby, J. L.; Balonek, C. M.; Suszynski, W. J.; Schmidt, L. D., Green Chemistry, 2009, 11, (10), 1555-1561.

[2] Mettler, M.S., Mushrif, S.H., Paulsen, A.D., Javadekar, A.D., Vlachos, D.G., Dauenhauer, P.J., Energy & Envrinmental Science, 2011, 5, 5414-5424

[3] Paulsen, A. D., Mettler, M. S., and Dauenhauer, P. J., Energy & Fuels, 2013, 27(4), 2126-2134

[4] Mettler, M. S., Vlachos, D., and Dauenhauer, P. J., Energy & Envrinmental Science, 2012, 5(7), 7797-7809