Pyrolysis of biomass in a semi-industrial scale reactor: Study of the fuel-nitrogen oxidation during combustion of volatiles

In this work, an experimental study of the NOx-fuel formation, carried out on a semi-industrial scale reactor during combustion of volatiles of the pyrolysis, is performed. Two different biomasses with different nitrogen contents such as a mixture of organic sludge and wood were tested. Results show that the temperature of pyrolysis does not obviously affect the production of NOx-fuel because of the most active precursors (NH3 and HCN) are already released at low temperatures (400 °C). In the case of sludge mixture, the combustion conditions play the discriminating role in the production of NOx-fuel: the higher the excess air ratio the larger the production of nitrogen oxides from N-fuel.