TITLE:
Physico-Chemical Characteristics of the Products Derived from the Thermolysis of Waste Abies alba Mill. Wood
AUTHORS:
Félix Antonio López, Olga Rodríguez, Andrea Urien, Belén Lobato, Teresa Álvarez Centeno, Francisco José Alguacil
KEYWORDS:
Thrermolysis; Abies alba Mill.; Bio-Oil; Biochar
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.4 No.1,
January
25,
2013
ABSTRACT: This paper reports the
physico-chemical characteristics of the products derived from the thermolysis
(thermolytic distillation)
of waste silver fir (Abies alba Mill.)
wood at different temperatures (400℃- 600℃) in a pilot scale plant. Depending on the thermolysis
temperature, the procedure yielded 45 - 53 wt%
pyroligneous acid with a high water content (80 - 86 wt%) and pH ≈ 3.6. The process also produced a
carbonaceous solid or biochar (23 - 26 wt%), its properties strongly dependent on the
thermolysis temperature. Gases (20 - 31 wt%) were also
produced; these were transformed into electrical energy via a gas turbine. The pyroligneous acid
was centrifuged to isolate a subfraction composed mostly of phenols (phenol,
mequinol and furfural) with a total C content of 68 - 74 wt%. The remainder was subjected to
fractionated distillation at laboratory scale, and the distillate subjected to
liquid-liquid extraction using diethyl ether in two stages to obtain a bio-oil
composed mainly of acetic acid (≈47%), aldehydes, ketones and alcohols (≈31%), phe- nols (≈18%) and aliphatic alcohols. The characteristics of the bio-oil
depended on the thermolysis temperature.