Effect of Torrefaction on the Fast Pyrolysis Using Forest Resources

Bio-oil has a great potential for multiple uses including heat/electricity generation and chemical production. This thermochemical technology appears to be a practical, effective, and environmentally sustainable means of producing renewable fuels while simultaneously reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. In addition, pyrolysis has a key advantage over biochemical methods in that it is less sensitive to variation in feedstocks, which makes supply-chain development less challenging. However, the quality of pyrolysis bio-oil is not sufficient to directly produce biofuels and chemicals due to high oxygen content, high acidity, and poor long-term stability. In this study, we investigated the potential of integrating fast pyrolysis with torrefaction to produce high quality bio-oil from forest resources. The benefits of this integration along with the preliminary experimental results will be discussed.