The rotating cone reactor: For rapid thermal solids processing

The rotating cone is a novel type of reactor for flash pyrolysis of biomass developed especially to maximize the bio-oil production. Wood particles fed to the bottom of the rotating cone together with an excess of inert heat carrier particles, are converted while being transported spirally upwards along the hot cone wall. Products obtained from the flash pyrolysis of wood dust in a rotating cone reactor are non-condensable gases, bio-oil and char. Specific features of this reactor are: rapid heating (5000 K/s) of the solids, a short residence time of the solids (0.5 s) and a small gas phase residence time (0.3 s). Since no carrier gas is required the pyrolysis products are not diluted. Reduction of the gas phase volume inside the rotating cone is possible by blocking a part of the volume inside the routing cone; it reduces the gas phase residence time in the reactor by which the secondary tar cracking is suppressed. Apart from biomass conversion, other promising areas of application of the routing cone technology are: the pyrolysis of coal or oil shale and the thermal cracking of polymers or oil residues. Also physical operations are possible like the drying of slurries by evaporation. For some of the chapters in this thesis separate abstracts have been prepared.