Design and commissioning of a continuous isothermal fast pyrolysis reactor
Author(s)
Glauber, Samuel Melville
Advisor(s)
Editor(s)
Collections
Supplementary to:
Permanent Link
Abstract
In order to meet growing demands for alternatives to fossil fuels, biomass pyrolysis is
a method that has been explored in depth as a method to develop new liquid fuels. Fast
pyrolysis is a subtype of pyrolysis reaction in which a specimen is heated at rates in
excess of 10C/s in an oxygen-free environment, causing the specimen to thermally
degrade and release a volatile bio-oil. The goal of this thesis is to design and commission
a novel reactor for the continuous isothermal fast pyrolysis of ground biomass. The
reactor design utilizes a vibrating plate heated to a set pyrolysis temperature. Analytical
and empirically-derived vibratory transport models are presented for ground Pinus taeda
(loblolly pine) to assist in setting the desired pyrolysis reaction time. A condenser system
was designed to rapidly evacuate and chill the volatiles to prevent tar formation and
secondary reactions. Commissioning tests were run at a pair of temperatures and biomass
residence times to determine the degree of agreement between the reactor yields and
two-component volatile formation data derived from batch fast pyrolysis of Pinus taeda.
Sponsor
Date
2013-01-14
Extent
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Thesis