Thermochemical behavior of pretreated biomass

Abstract: Mankind has to provide a sustainable alternative to its energy related problems. Bioenergy is considered as one of the potential renewable energy resources and as a result bioenergy market is also expected to grow dramatically in future. However, logistic issues are of serious concern while considering biomass as an alternative to fossil fuel. It can be improved by introducing pretreated wood pellet.The main objective of this thesis is to address thermochemical behaviour of steam exploded pretreated biomass. Additionally, process aspects of torrefaction were also considered in this thesis. Steam explosion (SE) was performed in a laboratory scale reactor using Salix wood chips. Afterwards, fuel and thermochemical aspects of SE residue were investigated. It was found that Steam explosion pretreatment improved both fuel and pellet quality. Pyrolysis of SE residue reveals that alerted biomass composition significantly affects its pyrolysis behaviour. Contribution from depolymerized components (hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin) of biomass was observed explicitly during pyrolysis. When devolatilization experiment was performed on pellet produced from SE residue, effect of those altered components was observed. In summary, pretreated biomass fuel characteristics is significantly different in comparison with untreated biomass. On the other hand, Process efficiency of torrefaction was found to be governed by the choice of appropriate operating conditions and the type of biomass.