INTERACTIONS BETWEEN BIOMASS COMPONENTS IN BIOMASS PYROLYSIS: A CASE STUDY ON POPULUS NIGRA

In the present paper the influence of possible interactions between biomass main components (hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin) on pyrolysis of Populus nigra has been studied. To this aim TG analysis have been performed on Populus nigra and on a model mixture of xylan, cellulose and lignin resembling its composition. The weight loss curves have been compared with two non interacting cases: the experimental one obtained superimposing the TG curves of xylan, cellulose and lignin and the numerical one obtained adopting the Bio-PoliMi kinetic model. Than, steam assisted pyrolysis tests have been carried out and products yields, gas releasing rate as function of temperature and gas composition obtained processing the real biomass and the model mixture in both the interacting and not interacting case have been compared.