Formation of the heavy tar during bio-oil pyrolysis: A study based on Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry.

Highlights • This study focuses on the evolution of heavy component of bio-oil during pyrolysis. • Temperature and heating rate influence the evolution of heavy components obviously. • O-containing species are prone to be enriched in the heavy components. • Polymerization of heavy components and breakage of O-species are simultaneous. • Molecular weight and O numbers of heavy components are not in linear relationship. Abstract The knowledge about the formation of the heavy tars of bio-oil during pyrolysis is of great importance for the further utilization of bio-oil. This work focuses on the formation of the heavy tars during pyrolysis of bio-oil at various temperatures and heating rates in a fixed-bed reactor. In order to investigate the detailed composition of the heavy tar, the bio-oil and tars were characterized with a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FT-ICR MS). Our results indicate that low temperature promotes the formation of heavy tars via the polymerization of bio-oil components, especially at slow heating rates, therein the condensed aromatics are formed via the polymerization of small aromatics with one or two rings. High temperature promotes the breakage of the oxygen-containing functional groups, meanwhile the highly condensed aromatics with more than 4 rings are formed at 800 °C via the strong secondary reactions (e.g. recombination), especially at fast heating rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]