A model of wood flash pyrolysis in fluidized bed reactor

With a view of exploiting renewable biomass energy as a highly efficient and clean energy, liquid fuel from biomass pyrolysis, called bio-oil, is expected to play a major role in future energy supply. At present, fluidized bed technology appears to have maximum potential in producing high-quality bio-oil. A model of wood pyrolysis in a fluidized bed reactor has been developed. The effect of main operation parameters on wood pyrolysis product distribution was well simulated. The model shows that reaction temperature plays a major important role in wood pyrolysis. And a good agreement between experimental and theoretical results was obtained. It was shown that particles less than 500 mum could achieve a high heating-up rate to meet flash pyrolysis demand. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.