Similarities and differences in hydrous pyrolysis of biomass and source rocks

In laboratory simulation of oil generation, products from closed systems pyrolysis of immature source rocks in the presence of water gives the closest match to petroleum compositions observed in nature. Fresh biomass can also be converted to fluids by pyrolysis, but in the absence of the sedimentary diagenetic transformations, the initially much higher oxygen content gives high yields of oxygen containing products. In this work, the reactions that occur during hydrous pyrolysis of a Kimmeridge source rock, a brown coal and two polymeric waste materials from alginate production are compared in terms of quantities of the main products and kinetic models of the reaction systems. The biomass pyrolysis and the simulated maturation are described in similar reaction networks. Conversion of biomass to fluids occurred with reaction networks and activation energy distributions comparable to the brown coal, while for the Kimmeridge source rock reactions a simpler reaction network could be used. The biomass samples gave a high degree of conversion to fluid products, and higher yields of bitumen than the coal. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.