Interactions of biomass constituents and the effect on the hydrogen storage molecules during fast pyrolysis

Abstract

Biomass pyrolysis oils are anticipated to serve as a source of bio-based platform chemicals and hydrogen storage molecules, primarily from the decomposition of holocellulose (cellulose and hemicellulose). This study examined the influence of component interactions among the thermal behavior, product distribution, and gas composition of the samples. The results show that in the cellulose and hemicellulose mixtures, the increase in hemicellulose promotes gas and solid production while inhibiting oil yield. However, the increasing hemicellulose reduced the production of aldehydes, acids, and ketones (a result corroborated by infrared characterization), including hydrogen storage molecules, with the most pronounced promotion occurring only in samples with cellulose to hemicellulose equivalence ratio of 2:1. Furthermore, lignin was added to samples with a cellulose-to-hemicellulose ratio of 1:1. The results demonstrated that the increasing lignin also promoted gas and solid production while inhibiting oil yield. Notably, even small amounts of lignin significantly increase the formation of small and hydrogen storage molecules by activating holocellulose through lignin side chain groups. However, a further increase in lignin also reduced the generation of hydrogen storage molecules. This study offers valuable insights for selecting proper raw materials for the generation of platform chemicals and hydrogen storage molecules.