Products properties from fast pyrolysis of enzymatic/mild acidolysis lignin

The conversion of enzymatic/mild acidolysis lignin (EMAL) isolated from moso bamboo to aromatic chemicals by fast pyrolysis were investigated under nitrogen atmosphere and atmospheric pressure. The experiment of EMAL pyrolyzing was set on a tubular reactor furnace at the temperature levels of 400, 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900 °C, and the products derived from EMAL pyrolyzing were classified into three-phase of gas, condensed liquid (tar), and solid (char). The chemical structure and surface morphology of solid product were characterized by fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the ingredients of gas product and liquid (tar) were analyzed with gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (GC/MS). The analysis results indicated that the yield of char decreased rapidly from 43% to 28% with an increase of temperature, and the yield of gas product increased gradually from 6% to 26%, and the yield of tar attained a maximum at 700 °C. SEM showed that char took on lots of vesicles that resulted from the gas release from EMAL pyrolyzing. The ingredients of gas product were comprised of H2, CO, CO2 and light hydrocarbons (CH4, C2H4 and C2H6), and the amount of H2, CO were high. Besides a huge amount of phenols, the tar contained aromatic hydrocarbons, chain hydrocarbons, monoaromatic aromatic hydrocarbons and some ketones, and the carbon number of chemical compounds were C6–C10.