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The pyrolysis of pine sawdust was carried out in a fixed bed reactor heated from 30 °C to a maximum of 700 °C in atmospheric nitrogen and pressurized hydrogen (5 MPa). The yield, elemental composition, thermal stability, and composition of the two pyrolysis bio-oils were analyzed and compared. The result shows that the oxygen content of the bio-oil (17.16%) obtained under the hydrogen atmosphere was lower while the heating value (31.40 MJ/kg) was higher than those of bio-oil produced under nitrogen atmosphere. Compounds with a boiling point of less than 200 °C account for 63.21% in the bio-oil at pressurized hydrogen atmosphere, with a proportion 14.69% higher than that of bio-oil at nitrogen atmosphere. Furthermore, the hydrogenation promoted the formation of ethyl hexadecanoate (peak area percentage 19.1%) and ethyl octadecanoate (peak area percentage 15.42%) in the bio-oil. Overall, high pressure of hydrogen improved the bio-oil quality derived from the pyrolysis of pine biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-pyrolysis behaviors of plastics-biomass blends were investigated using a thermogravimetric (TG) analysis from room temperature to 873 K with a heating rate of 5-40 K min in an inert atmosphere. The selected biomass sample was sawdust of pine wood (WS). Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP) were selected as plastic samples. The difference of mass loss between experimental and theoretical ones (calculated as arithmetic sums of those from each separated component) was used as a criterion of synergetic effect. The experimental results indicated that a significant synergetic effect existed during the high-temperature region of plastics and WS co-pyrolysis process, specially, the dehydrochlorination reaction of PVC and the degradation of hemicellulose and cellulose in the WS during the co-pyrolysis process showed synergetic effect, as well as the reaction of plastics (LDPE, HDPE, and PP) and WS. Based on the TG data with different heating rates, the kinetics parameters, especially activation energy, were calculated using the Friedman method. The activation energy of plastics, WS, and their blends were from 92.8 to 359.5 kJ mol. The activation energy of the PVC-WS blends was at a range of 180.2-254.5 kJ mol in the second stages. The activation energies range of LDPE-WS, HDPE-WS, and PP-WS blends were 164.5-229.6, 213.2-234.3, and 198.4-263.6 kJ mol, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]