Detailed simulations of fast pyrolysis of biomass in a fluidized bed reactor

In the present work, an Eulerian-Eulerian computational fluid dynamics model with an advanced kinetic scheme is used to simulate the fast pyrolysis of biomass in a fluidized bed reactor. The focus of this work is to investigate the influence of pyrolysis temperature and biomass components on the fast pyrolysis of biomass. Initially, the simulations were carried out to validate the model. The results showed that the model could make a good prediction about the fast pyrolysis of biomass. Further simulations were conducted to investigate the fast pyrolysis at different temperatures. The results indicated that the pyrolysis temperature considerably influenced the product yields and reaction rates of fast pyrolysis reactions of biomass and bio-oil compositions. In addition, the ability of different components of biomass to produce pyrolysis products was also studied. The results showed that cellulose had the strongest ability to produce bio-oil, while lignin had the strongest ability to produce char. The energy recovery coefficient of bio-oil obtained at different pyrolysis temperatures was also calculated and analyzed in this paper. Published by AIP Publishing.