Composition Effects on the Devolatilization Behavior of Biomass and Municipal Solid Waste

A primary goal of this ongoing research is to quantitatively measure the effects of feedstock composition on the pyrolysis of biomass. Two classes of biomass are studied: municipal solid waste (refuse-derived fuel) which is over 80% lignocellulosics, and under-utilized herbaceous and woody species. The composition classes within municipal solid waste were easily identified, and experiments were performed to quantify the effects of paper, plastics, metal/and glass, and inorganics content on the pyrolysis product slate. The influence of reaction conditions (heating rate) and feed properties (moisture and particle size) were also studied in conjunction with the composition effects. The composition measures for biomass relied on characterization data from the US Department of Agriculture on over 1100 species.