Experimental and Modeling Investigation on the Effect of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Oxygen on Biomass Tar Decomposition

The
heteroatoms, such as oxygen, have great influence on tar decomposition
reactivity. To investigate the effect of oxygen on biomass tar decomposition,
thermal decomposition of three typical oxygenated tar compounds and
toluene were conducted under inert and oxidative atmospheres in a
flow tube reactor. The key roles of intrinsic oxygen of tar and extrinsic
oxygen at controlled atmospheres were taken into consideration. Results
show that all three tar compounds were easy to decompose at moderate
temperatures accompanied by the polymerization reaction. 2-Methoxyphenol
produced less naphthalene compared to anisole under an inert atmosphere.
Intrinsic oxygen enhanced the reactivity of tar as well as inhibited
the polymerization process. Moderate extrinsic oxygen addition could
eliminate tar without sacrifice of combustible gases, such as H2 and CO. The reaction mechanism generator (RMG) method was
used to build a complete detailed kinetic model to simulate biomass
tar homogeneous conversion. The new detailed kinetic model could predict
the conversion of model tar compounds as well as the real tar mixture.