Products distribution and generation pathway of cellulose pyrolysis

Abstract Pyrolysis was one of the most effective ways for the clean use of biomass and biomass that constitutes a huge annual production. In order better utilize biomass, this study infers the pyrolysis mechanism of cellulose, cellobiose, β-D-glucopyranose and levoglucosan by Py-GC-MS (Pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) and in-situ infrared spectroscopy. Pyrolysis products of cellulose included dehydrated saccharides, furans, small molecules, furanones, benzenes, and cyclopentanones. The first three categories were the main products. Saccharides had the highest yield in cellulose pyrolysis products. The yield of furans in pyrolysis products of cellobiose was higher than that in cellulose and β-D-glucopyranose. The highest yield of small molecules, such as acetaldehyde and methyl glyoxal, was found in pyrolysis products of β-D-glucopyranose. There was a competitive relationship among the production of saccharides, furans and small molecules in the primary pyrolysis. And the furans and small molecules were also the products of the secondary pyrolysis of saccharides. Combined with in situ infrared analysis, 32 generation pathways of the 27 main products detected from Py-GC-MS were given; this provides a theoretical basis for subsequent research on targeted pyrolysis manufacturing target products.