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Influence of torrefaction pretreatment on the pyrolysis characteristics of seaweed biomass

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Abstract

Torrefaction is a promising pretreatment technology for biomass and its pyrolysis products upgrading. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of torrefaction on the pyrolysis of seaweed biomass. TG, Py-GC/MS and fixed-bed experiments were used at a series of typical torrefaction temperatures (225 °C, 250 °C, 275 °C and 300 °C) and pyrolysis temperatures (450 °C, 500 °C, and 550 °C). The results showed that increasing of torrefaction temperature led to gradual reduction in moisture content and volatile content due to the precipitation of water and volatile functional groups (OH, NH, CO, C=O, etc.), which resulted in increase of solid products of torrefied seaweed. In addition, the liquid yield showed a promotion at first and then decreased. It also indicated that thermal stability of seaweed became stronger after the pretreatment leading to the initial pyrolysis temperature shifting toward the high temperature section. Meanwhile, the maximum pyrolysis weight loss rate and the total weight loss got a reduction. Moreover, the optimal conditions for maximum bio-oil production were obtained when the temperature of torrefaction was 250 °C at the pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C. Furthermore, the bio-oil under such conditions gave the highest relative content of aromatic hydrocarbons.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51676091); and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2019T120408, 2018M630529).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Jiangsu, 212013, China

    Yamin Hu, Shuang Wang, Qian Wang, Zhixia He, Abd El-Fatah Abomohra & Bin Cao

  2. Institute for Energy Research, Jiangsu University, Jiangsu, 212013, China

    Zhixia He

  3. Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, 31527, Egypt

    Abd El-Fatah Abomohra

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  1. Yamin Hu
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  2. Shuang Wang
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  3. Qian Wang
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Correspondence to Shuang Wang.

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Hu, Y., Wang, S., Wang, Q. et al. Influence of torrefaction pretreatment on the pyrolysis characteristics of seaweed biomass. Cellulose 26, 8475–8487 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-019-02595-7

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