810
Energy & Fuels 2004, 18, 810-819
Sulfur Transformations during Thermal Conversion of Herbaceous Biomass Jacob N. Knudsen, Peter A. Jensen,* Weigang Lin, Flemming J. Frandsen, and Kim Dam-Johansen The CHEC Research Centre, Department of Chemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Building 229, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark Received November 10, 2003. Revised Manuscript Received February 27, 2004
In this work, the sulfur transformations during thermal conversion of two straw samples have been experimentally investigated. Sulfur was found to be associated partly as inorganic sulfate (40-50% of the total S) and partly as organic sulfur (50-40%) in typical Danish wheat straw samples. Batch pyrolysis and combustion experiments were conducted in a lab-scale tubular reactor in order to obtain quantitative information on the sulfur transformations during devolatilization and char burnout. The lab-scale experiments indicated that 35-50% of the total sulfur was released to the gas phase during the devolatilization. The release was predominantly caused by decomposition of organically associated sulfur. During char burnout at low temperature (
