Product yields and characteristics of rice husk, rice straw and corncob during fast pyrolysis in a drop-tube/fixed-bed reactor

Fast pyrolysis of rice husk, rice straw and corncob were investigated in a newly constructed drop-tube/fixed-bedreactor, which enables pyrolysis experiments under conditions closely simulating those occurring in commercial gasifierssuch as fluidised-bed gasifiers. Biomass samples were pyrolysed with a fast heating rate (i.e. > 1,000oC s-1), up to 850oC andholding times ranging from 1 to 10,800 seconds. Within 1 second after the biomass was injected into the reactor, considerableweight loss occurred instantaneously, leaving only a small amount of char, i.e. ~10-30 %. For all three samples, theweight loss continued throughout the range of holding times used but at an extremely slow rate, i.e. 1.3 % hr-1. The weightloss rates observed for the three biomass samples were affected by the proportion of the biomass chemical componentsas well as the metal species contents. Corncob, which had the lowest lignin content but highest cellulose content, had thehighest pyrolysis weight loss rate. On the other hand, rice husk containing a relatively high lignin content, had the lowestpyrolysis rate. The metal species (Na, K, Ca and Mg) were found to increase devolatilisation yield depending on theircontents in biomass. The influence of the metal species was the most pronounced for rice straw, having the highest totalmetal species content. As the pyrolysis progressed, each biomass exhibited different char characteristics. Scanning electronmicroscopy (SEM) pictures clearly showed the individual changes in geometry for all biomass-derived chars as well astheir decrease in combustion reactivities. The gas formation profiles for all three biomass samples showed almost the sametrend, with CO contributed by cellulose decomposition as the major gas product.