Performance of a conical spouted bed pilot plant for bio-oil production by poplar flash pyrolysis

Fast pyrolysis of eucalyptus waste in a conical spouted bed reactor

“…The bio-oil obtained in the pyrolysis of eucalyptus wastes in the conical spouted bed reactor is similar to those obtained in previous studies using several forestry residues such as pinewood (Amutio et al, 2012), broom, acacia, carquesa (Amutio et al, 2013b) and poplar wood (Makibar et al, 2015). Thus, the bio-oils obtained in the CSBR contain water in the 20-38 wt.% range, with the main organic compounds being phenols (especially catechols) and ketones (cyclopentanones), and a significant contribution of furans, acids and saccharides.…”

“…These results corroborate the suitability of the CSBR for biomass pyrolysis, which has already been proven in the pyrolysis of several types of agro-forestry residues, such as pinewood (Amutio et al, 2012), rice husk (Alvarez et al, 2014a) and shrubs (Amutio et al, 2013b), with bio-oil yields being in the 70-80 wt.% range in a bench scale unit. Furthermore, the scale up of the technology to a 25 kg/h pilot plant has been successfully accomplished as evidenced by the high bio-oil yields (65-69 wt.% range) obtained in the pyrolysis of pine and poplar wood (Fernandez-Akarregi et al, 2013;Makibar et al, 2015). The solid cyclic movement of the particles in the reactor favors the isothermicity of the bed and the high gas flow-rate gives way to high heat and mass transfer rates and allows operation with very low gas residence times.…”

“…Furthermore, it is noteworthy that short volatile residence times are suitable for minimizing the catalytic activity of the ashes (Carpenter et al, 2014), which allows obtaining high bio-oil yields (70 wt.%) for rice husk pyrolysis, even though this material has a high ash content (Alvarez et al, 2014a). In addition, this technology has been scaled up to a 25 kg/h pilot plant, in collaboration with IK4-Ikerlan Research Centre, with its performance being excellent for pine and poplar wood pyrolysis (Fernandez-Akarregi et al, 2013;Makibar et al, 2015).…”

Modelling of Spouted and Spout-Fluid Beds: Key for Their Successful Scale Up

“…Pyrolysis of biomass [42][43][44][45][46][47], waste plastic [48,49], scrap tires [50,51] and sludge [52][53][54][55] have been tested and validated at lab and pilot scale. Also, the combustion of wood charcoal [56], biomass [57][58][59], sludge from the paper industry [60] or eventually toxic wastes [61] has been object of several studies as well as the gasification of coal [62,63], biomass [64][65][66][67], sewage sludge [68], flame retardants textile products [69] and mixtures of biomass with plastics [46] or coal [70].…”

White Poplar Microwave Pyrolysis: Heating Rate and Optimization of Biochar Yield

“…White poplar is a fast-growing plantation forest species that is widely planted along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtzi River. In addition to using it as an industrial material (Chen and Cheng 2014), white poplar wood and its residues could be used for bioenergy through thermochemical conversion processes such as gasification and pyrolysis (Gu et al 2013;Makibar et al 2015).…”