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Concept
Pyrolysis oil
Summary
Pyrolysis oil, sometimes also known as bio-crude or bio-oil, is a synthetic fuel under investigation as substitute for petroleum. It is obtained by heating dried biomass without oxygen in a reactor at a temperature of about with subsequent cooling. Pyrolysis oil is a kind of tar and normally contains levels of oxygen too high to be considered a pure hydrocarbon. This high oxygen content results in non-volatility, corrosiveness, immiscibility with fossil fuels, thermal instability, and a tendency to polymerize when exposed to air. As such, it is distinctly different from petroleum products. Removing oxygen from bio-oil or nitrogen from algal bio-oil is known as upgrading.
There are few standards for pyrolysis oil because of limited efforts to produce it. One of the few standards is from ASTM.
Pyrolysis is a well established technique for decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen into oil and other constituents. In second-generation biofuel applications—forest and agricultural residues, waste wood, yard waste, and energy crops can be used as feedstock.
When wood is heated above it begins a process of decomposition called carbonization. In the absence of oxygen, the final product is charcoal. If sufficient oxygen is present, the wood will burn when it reaches a temperature of about leaving wood ash behind. If wood is heated away from air, the moisture is first driven off and until this is complete, the wood temperature remains at about . When the wood is dry its temperature rises, and at about it begins to spontaneously decompose and generate heat. This is the well known exothermic reaction which takes place in the burning of charcoal. At this stage evolution of carbonization by-products starts. These substances are given off gradually as the temperature rises and at about the evolution is complete.
Official source
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