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Evaluation of biochars by temperature programmed oxidation/mass spectrometry

Formally Refereed

Abstract

Biochars produced from thermochemical conversions of biomass were evaluated by temperature programmed oxidation (TPO). This technique, used to characterize carbon deposits on petroleum cracking catalysts, provides information on the oxidative stability of carbonaceous solids, where higher temperature reactivity indicates greater structural order, an important property for biochars applications. Differences between TPO profiles of biochars generated by fast pyrolysis of soy straw, barley straw, switchgrass, bamboo, and various woods demonstrated that the oxidative stabilities of the biochars are dependent on the starting biomass. Biochars from softwood and hardwood feedstocks were also processed by torrefaction and gasification to assess the impact of the analyses showed that the biochars produced under higher temperature conditions from pine wood (softwood) were consistently more resistant to oxidation compared to their hardwood counterparts. This exploratory study represents the first application of TPO to biochars.

Keywords

biochars, gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction, temperature programmed oxidation

Citation

Jackson M.A; T.L. Eberhardt; A.A. Boateng; C.A. Mullen; L.H. Groom. 2013. Evaluation of biochars by temperature programmed oxidation/mass spectrometry. BioResources. 8(4):5461-5474. 14 p.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/48223