Study based on secondary cracking of glucose pyrolysis vapor

Glucose is one of the primary building blocks of biomass. When biomass is thermochemically processed, a primary process that it is subjected to is thermal decomposition of glucose. In the context of hydrocarbon fuels, primary pyrolysis of glucose is reported to produce only insignificant amounts of higher-molecular-weight hydrocarbons. In this work, the product composition of glucose secondary pyrolysis was studied in a (pyroprobe) micro-reactor. The temperature of the secondary reactor was varied 400 to 800C in 100C intervals. Two pressure levels were investigated (0 psi and 100psi). It was observed that incorporation of a secondary pyrolytic reactor help improve the hydrocarbon composition significantly. Further, it was found out that the increase of system pressure had a positive impact on the hydrocarbon yields. Gasoline range hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes were detected in the product stream. This study revealed that secondary cracking of pyrolyzed products undergoes gas phase homogenous reactions with molecular restructuring favoring hydrocarbon production.

Study based on secondary cracking of glucose pyrolysis vapor Conference Paper