Abstract
This research is aiming at developing a pyrolysis technology of biomass producing charcoal with a high yield. Our strategy in increasing a charcoal yield is to facilitate co-carbonization of biomass and tar by intensifying char / biomass and tar interactions inside the reactor. A laboratory scale simulated moving bed reactor was originally developed. Using this reactor, it was possible to evaluate several processes included in the biomass pyrolysis at up-draft moving bed reactor such as volatile release, tar sorption in / on biomass, tar reforming at charcoal surface, and co-carbonization of biomass / char and tar. The fundamental knowledge accumulated with these experiments towards maximizing charcoal yields as well as minimizing heavy tar yields provided guidelines useful for designing and operating the bench-scale up-draft moving bed pyrolyzer which can process 1 ton of biomass feedstock per day. The test operations revealed that charcoal yields from several biomass with more than 40 mass% were successfully achieved.
