Experimental investigation into the characteristics of chars obtained from fast pyrolysis of different biomass fuels

Biomass is a promising alternative energy source for fossil fuel with the advantages of abundance, renewability, environmental friendliness, etc. This makes the development of biomass technology be of great potential and interesting. The experiments of biomass fast pyrolysis were performed in a microquartz reactor for rice husk (RH), corn stalk (CS) and birch wood (BW), and scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer, and Raman microscope were then applied to analyze the collected chars. The average char yields of RH, CS, and BW pyrolyzed at 800°C were 29.64%, 18.67%, and 8.64%, respectively. The morphological structures of RH and CS were mainly reserved in chars, while the raw surface textures of BW disappeared during the fast pyrolysis. The silicon concentrations in RH char and CS char were much higher than BW char, and the graphitization degree of CS char was the lowest among the three biomass chars.