Fast Pyrolysis of Biomass: A Handbook Volume 2 v. 2

The Fast Pyrolysis Handbook Volume 2 is an edited version of the final report of the European Commission and IEA Bioenergy sponsored Pyrolysis Network that officially finished in 2001. It provides a companion volume to the first handbook published in 1999 and it is again intended that this will provide a useful guide both to newcomers to the subject area as well as those already involved in research, development and implementation.

A significant feature of this second volume is the greater attention paid to addressing commercial issues such as marketability, transportation and safety. Fast pyrolysis is a high temperature process in which biomass is rapidly heated in the absence of oxygen. As a result it decomposes to generate mostly vapours and aerosols and some charcoal.

After cooling and condensation, a dark brown mobile liquid is formed which has a heating value about half that of conventional fuel oil. While it is related to the traditional pyrolysis processes for making charcoal, fast pyrolysis is an advanced process that is carefully controlled to give high yields of liquid.

The essential features of a fast pyrolysis process are: very high heating and heat transfer rates, which usually requires a finely ground biomass feed; carefully controlled pyrolysis reaction temperature of around 500C in the vapour phase, with short vapour residence times of typically less than 2 seconds; rapid cooling of the pyrolysis vapours to give the main product - bio-oil.