Devolatilization of two agricultural residues in fluidized bed: product distribution and influence of fluidization agent

Abstract

Devolatilization of two agricultural residues; corn stover and a solid by-product from enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass (cake), was carried out in a fluidized bed at temperatures between 750 and 900 ºC. The distribution of products and composition of the light gas were determined using N2 as fluidizing gas and the effect of the fluidizing agent was studied using N2-steam and N2-CO2 mixtures. Dedicated experiments were performed in order to measure the amount of H2O formed during devolatilization and the results had good repeatability. Expressions for calculating product yields and light gas composition as a function of temperature were obtained. These expressions are useful for gasification modeling. It was found that the composition of the fluidizing gas did not have significant effect on production of light gases during devolatilization.