Refining fast pyrolysis of biomass

Pyrolysis oil produced from biomass is a promising renewable alternative to crude oil. Such pyrolysis oil has transportation, storage, and processing benefits, none of which are offered by the bulky, inhomogeneous solid biomass from which it originates. However, pyrolysis oil has both a different composition to and different properties from crude oil. This makes its direct use in those applications and conversion processes originally developed for fossil feeds problematic. Improvement of the pyrolysis oil‘s quality is essential to accelerate the development and implementation of pyrolysis technology and its commercial exploitation. Despite the many studies on pyrolysis, the understanding of the chemical reactions and physical processes occurring in a pyrolysis reactor and in a biomass particle undergoing fast pyrolysis remains limited. The same holds for the knowledge on ways of optimizing the operating conditions and modus operandi, so as to improve both the pyrolysis oil‘s quality and yield. This thesis provide clarification in these two areas.