Soft modelling of spruce conversion into bio-oil through pyrolysis – Note II: pyrolysis

Biorefinery converts biomass into valuable bioproducts. Cellulose and hemicellulose are degraded into simple sugars during enzymatic saccharification, while lignin remains unutilized. Lignin and residual cellulose can be subjected to pyrolysis, a key biorefinery step for improved valorization of biomass. During biomass pyrolysis thousands of compounds are formed, thus, a simplified approach must be adopted for the sake of modelling. Lumped kinetic models address a simplified description of the system by catching relevant features of the product mixture. This contribution presents a pyrolysis model where two previously validated kinetics are merged to get a more effective description of the product distribution. The model provides a quantitative characterization of the main product classes (aldehydes, carboxylic acids, phenols, furans, etc.) and can be used as a numerical tool for roughly scaling up pyrolysis reactors in a softwood-based biorefinery. This approach can be considered general and is applicable to all biomass types.