1

Qingzheng (George) Cheng1, Jingxin Wang1

Kaushlendra Singh1, John Zondlo2

1Division of Forestry and Natural Resources 2Chemical Engineering

West Virginia University , Morgantown, WV 26506

FPS Conference, Portland, Orogon

June 21, 2011

TGA-FTIR ANALYSIS OF WOODY BIOMASS

AND COAL FOR ENERGY PRODUCTION

1

• Introduction

• Objectives

• Materials and Methods

• Results

• Conclusions

2

Outline

2

Source: Energy Information Administration (2007)

Introduction

Source: Energy Information Administration (2007)

Introduction

3

• Reduced use of nonrenewable fuels,

• Less dependence on imported fuel sources,

• Rural economy development, and

• Reduced GHG emissions

• To use available, abundant, renewable,

resources ranging from plant to animal

biomass, or other renewable resources.

5

Introduction

Opportunity

Biomass is plant matter such as trees, grasses, agricultural crops or other

biological materials.

It can be used as a solid fuel, or converted into liquid or gaseous forms, for

the production of electric power, heat, or chemicals.

Biofuel is any gas, liquid, or solid fuel derived either from recently living

organisms or from their metabolic by-products.

Source (Wang et al. 2006)

Introduction

6

4

Introduction

7

• 90% of electricity generation in West Virginia came from coal.

Electricity Generation

Introduction

8

Coal vs. Wood or Coal + Wood ?

Coal : 8,000-15,000 Btu/Ib, 27% volatile, 45-86% carbon

Wood: 7,000-9,000 Btu/Ib, 70-80% volatile, 20-26% carbon

5

(Wu, Wang, Cheng and DeVallance. International J of Energy Research 2011)

9

Introduction (CBTL)

• Most economical until

other resources available

to produce liquid fuels at

lower costs;

• One potential way of

reducing the carbon

emission of coal to liquid

fuels;

• Enhance rural community

and economic

development.

Specific objectives

Pyrolysis and gasification in TGA/FTIR system:

Use TGA/FTIR system (thermogravimetric analysis-

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) to conduct

pyrolysis and gasification for coal and biomasss

mixtures and analyze the resulting gaseous components.

10

Objectives

6

Yellow poplar

Red oak

Kingwood Coal

11

Materials

King-wood

90 80 70 50 20

Yellow poplar

10 20 30 50 80

Red oak --- 20 --- --- ---

12

Methodology

TGA FTIR

TGA-FTIR Connection line

TGA-FTIR Interface

7

13

Methodology

• Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)

T: room-950 °C, 10 °C/min (natrigen flow

rate 50 ml/min)

• Fourier transform infrared

spectroscopy (FTIR):

Resolution: range at 4 cm-1

Spectra collected every 30 s

Yellow poplar 14

Results

8

Yellow poplar 15

Results

Red oak 16

Results

9

Red oak 17

Results

Kingwood coal 18

Results

10

Weight loss of wood vs coal

19

Results

Weight loss Td of KW coal + YP (10 to 80)

20

Results

78.2%

469 °C

11

3D FTIR of diff Kingwood : YP ratios

21

Results

Kingwood +YP vs RO=80:20

22

Results

12

Thermal analysis demonstrates that woody biomass sources are easily decomposed, with most of their weight lost under lower temperature compared with coal.

The biomass pyrolysis process could be divided into different stages: moisture evaporation, hemicellulose decomposition, cellulose and lignin degradation.

Woody biomass could enhance/stimulative coal pyrolysis/gasification. Different biomass may have different influences.

The main gaseous products from the pyrolysis of biomass, coal, and their mixture with different ratios included CO2, CH4, CO, H2O and some organics (a mixture of acids, aldehydes (C=O), alkanes (C–C), and ethers (C–O–C)).

23

Conclusions

Thanks!

24