2023 Volume 63 Issue 9 Pages 1441-1450
Researchers have thoroughly studied coal pyrolysis over a long period, while the analysis of volatile evolution and the chemical structural changes of solid char were carried out individually in most of the studies. In this work, we quantified the chemical reactions to explain the different physical phenomena, such as softening and caking properties, exhibited by different ranks of coals during pyrolysis. Four typical carbonaceous feedstocks (bituminous, sub-bituminous, lignite coals, and biomass) were selected as test samples. The authors analyzed the generated gas during pyrolysis by using a quadrupole mass spectrometer (Q-MS) and the chemical structure of the pyrolyzed char via spectroscopic methods (NMR, FT-IR, CHNS, and XPS) to gain new insights into the pyrolysis mechanism of the carbonaceous feedstocks. Transferable hydrogen was introduced to define the hydrogen used to stable the free radicals formed during pyrolysis, which can be obtained by quantifying the conversion routes of hydrogen. The hydrogen released for the growth of aromatic clusters has three pathways, namely, (1) consumption by the hydrodeoxygenation reaction to produce pyrolytic vapor, (2) release as gaseous H2, and (3) transferable hydrogen. The calculation shows that the amount of transferable hydrogen during pyrolysis decreases as the coal rank gets lower. For pyrolysis up to 500°C, the amount of transferable hydrogen is 3.96, 2.32, and 1.36 mol/kg-coal for bituminous, sub-bituminous, and lignite coals, respectively. On the other hand, the transferable hydrogen of biomass needs to be further considered in terms of the effect of cellulose and hemicellulose’s structure.
