The continuous self stirred tank reactor:: measurement of the cracking kinetics of biomass pyrolysis vapours

The continuous self stirred tank reactor is a well known suitable device for studying the kinetics of high-temperature gas phase reactions. Temperature and composition are uniform at any point of the reactor, and for a given residence time, it is easy to calculate the values of kinetic constants from a very simple mathematical model. The aim of the present paper is to report the first experimental results obtained on the thermal cracking of vapours produced by the pyrolysis of biomass. The experiments are carried out between 836 and 1303 K and under mean residence times ranging from 0.3 to 0.5 s. The calculated activation energy (59 W mol(-1)) and preexponential factor (1930 s(-1)) are in good agreement with those obtained by other authors operating in more usual devices, but needing the solving of more sophisticated models. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.