High Temperature Flash Pyrolysis of Wood in a Lab-Scale Solar Reactor

Pyrolysis of biomass (wood) was studied at the focus of a 1.5 kW vertical axis solar furnace. The sweeping gas feeding system was designed based on the CFD simulation results. The effects of temperature on the product yields and compositions of gas were investigated by experiments performed at heating rate of 50°C/s up to 600, 800, 1000, and 1200°C. The role of heating rates influencing the product yields and gas composition was studied by experiments carried out at different heating rates of 5, 100, 25 °C/s to 1200°C. The results show that the increase of gas product from 27.7% to 47.8% with increasing temperature and heating rate comes from the tar decomposition. In the solar reactor, heating rate plays a more important role for the product yields than temperature does, which is different with respect to conventional reactors.