Conversion of sawdust to bio-fuels by pyrolysis within molten sodium hydroxide

Sawdust, a renewable by-product of furniture manufacturing industry, is an energy source that can be utilized to meet the increasing demands for energy. Pyrolysis of sawdust was performed in a self-designed reactor under the conditions of nitrogen atmosphere, the effect of feeding rate, flow rate of sweeping gas, sawdust type, and inorganic salts additive on the pyrolysis product yields from sawdust have been investigated. The results shows that the char yield increased gradually with the increasing of feeding rate, the maximum yield of liquid and gaseous attained at the feeding rate of 1.36g/min; the liquid yield decreased gradually with the increasing of sweeping gas flow rate, and the maximum of gaseous attained at the flow rate of 100L/h; different kinds of sawdust can be used to produce different pyrolysis products, and ZnCl₂ can retrain the formation of liquid and char obviously, the effect on formation of gaseous was slight.