NO_x and N₂O Precursors from Biomass Pyrolysis: Nitrogen Transformation from Amino Acid

Abstract

Large quantities of NO(x) and N(2)O emissions can be produced from biomass burning. Understanding nitrogen behavior during biomass pyrolysis is crucial. Nitrogen in biomass is mainly in forms of proteins (amino acids). Phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and glutamic acid were used as the model compounds for the nitrogen in biomass. Release behavior tests of nitrogen species from the three amino acids during pyrolysis in argon and gasification with O(2) and CO(2) were performed using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) coupled with a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. The results indicate that although the influence of oxygen and CO(2) in the atmosphere on nitrogen behavior is different for the amino acids, it is interesting to find some phenomenon in common. The presence of oxygen promotes NO and HNCO formation for all the three amino acids; HCN and HNCO formation are suppressed by introduced CO(2) for all the three amino acids. This can reveal the N-conversion mechanism from biomass in depth under the same conditions.

A Review of Thermal Co-Conversion of Coal and Biomass/Waste

“…Given the predominance of proteins as the main nitrogen-containing compound in biomass, some researchers [172][173][174][175][176][177] have used amino acids as model compounds to study the behavior of nitrogen during thermal decomposition of biomass. Ren and Zhao [175] studied the pyrolysis and O 2 and CO 2 gasification behavior of phenylalanine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid in a TGA at temperatures ranging from 0 K to1073 K. The distinct structures of these amino acids cause them to behave slightly differently under argon pyrolysis as well as O 2 and CO 2 gasification.…”

“…Ren and Zhao [175] studied the pyrolysis and O 2 and CO 2 gasification behavior of phenylalanine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid in a TGA at temperatures ranging from 0 K to1073 K. The distinct structures of these amino acids cause them to behave slightly differently under argon pyrolysis as well as O 2 and CO 2 gasification. Ren et al [176] found that the structure of the amino acids, the mineral matter content of biomass [178,179], the pyrolysis/gasification condition and the particle size [161,180] affects significantly the fate of nitrogen during pyrolysis of biomass.…”

Evolution of fuel-N in gas phase during biomass pyrolysis

“…The thermal stability is dependent on the amino acid structure, and due to the different structures of amino acids. The behavior of nitrogen conversion is distinctive for different amino acids [191][192][193][194][195][196]. For some amino acids, HCN is the main N-containing species and its yield is higher, and for some amino acids, NH 3 is the main N-containing species.…”

Combustion of hazardous biological waste derived from the fermentation of antibiotics using TG–FTIR and Py–GC/MS techniques

“…Undoubtedly, the release of NO can be attributed to the reaction between N-containing compounds and Å OH radicals (Ren and Zhao, 2012). A bimodal shape was observed for the NO emissions.…”

“…The second region (>400°C) was due to the secondary oxidation of N-containing residues derived from the primary degradation process. Compared with the N 2 atmosphere, the release of N species during the high temperature region was enhanced by the hydroxyl radical ( Å OH) derived from the cleavage of C-OH bonds in the presence of an air atmosphere (Ren and Zhao, 2012).…”