Development of a detailed reaction kinetic model for cellulose fast pyrolysis

A comprehensive mechanistic model for the fast pyrolysis of cellulose was developed, which incorporates the individual steps for the formation of important products, e.g., levoglucosan, glycolaldehyde, 5-hydroxymethyl furfural, furfural, and formic acid. The underlying mechanism involves the scission of the cellulose chain at random mid-position and at the chain ends. The heterolytic glucosidic bond scission and the retro-Diels-Alder reactions occur at the mid-chain, while the retro-aldol reaction, 1,2-dehydration, 1,3-dehydration, hydrolysis, and cyclic Grob fragmentation reactions occur at the chain end. A computational framework based on continuous distribution kinetics was constructed to solve the kinetic model and predict the time evolution of the product yields. The results and the applicability of the model for complex biomass systems were discussed. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2011 AIChE Spring Meeting & 7th Global Congress on Process Safety (Chicago, IL 3/13-17/2011).