Acid-catalysed cellulose pyrolysis at low temperatures

© 2016 Elsevier LtdThis study reports the pyrolysis of the acid-impregnated cellulose at 50–325 °C. The presence of acid is found to significantly change cellulose pyrolysis mechanism. While the pyrolysis of raw cellulose mainly proceeds with depolymerisation reactions, the pyrolysis of the acid-imp...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Long, Yu, Yu, Yun, Chua, Yee Wen, Wu, Hongwei
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier Ltd 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58526
_version_ 1848760282248118272
author Long, Yu
Yu, Yun
Chua, Yee Wen
Wu, Hongwei
author_facet Long, Yu
Yu, Yun
Chua, Yee Wen
Wu, Hongwei
author_sort Long, Yu
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2016 Elsevier LtdThis study reports the pyrolysis of the acid-impregnated cellulose at 50–325 °C. The presence of acid is found to significantly change cellulose pyrolysis mechanism. While the pyrolysis of raw cellulose mainly proceeds with depolymerisation reactions, the pyrolysis of the acid-impregnated cellulose is dominantly contributed by dehydration reactions. The acid impregnation process seems to weaken the hydrogen bonding networks in cellulose, promoting the formation of glucose oligomers as reaction intermediates. Due to the presence of acid in the reaction intermediates, the glucose oligomers are rapidly hydrolysed to glucose, especially at low temperatures (i.e., 100 °C) where the evaporation of produced water (via dehydration) is slow. The results also suggest that glucose is subsequently dehydrated to low molecular weight compounds at increased temperatures. The highly dehydrated cellulose further suppresses the depolymerisation reactions, resulting in a low levoglucosan yield during acid-catalysed pyrolysis of cellulose. The highly dehydrated cellulose also favours char formation likely via furanic structures which are finally transformed into aromatic structures at temperatures >300 °C.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T10:13:18Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-58526
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T10:13:18Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Elsevier Ltd
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-585262017-11-24T05:45:54Z Acid-catalysed cellulose pyrolysis at low temperatures Long, Yu Yu, Yun Chua, Yee Wen Wu, Hongwei © 2016 Elsevier LtdThis study reports the pyrolysis of the acid-impregnated cellulose at 50–325 °C. The presence of acid is found to significantly change cellulose pyrolysis mechanism. While the pyrolysis of raw cellulose mainly proceeds with depolymerisation reactions, the pyrolysis of the acid-impregnated cellulose is dominantly contributed by dehydration reactions. The acid impregnation process seems to weaken the hydrogen bonding networks in cellulose, promoting the formation of glucose oligomers as reaction intermediates. Due to the presence of acid in the reaction intermediates, the glucose oligomers are rapidly hydrolysed to glucose, especially at low temperatures (i.e., 100 °C) where the evaporation of produced water (via dehydration) is slow. The results also suggest that glucose is subsequently dehydrated to low molecular weight compounds at increased temperatures. The highly dehydrated cellulose further suppresses the depolymerisation reactions, resulting in a low levoglucosan yield during acid-catalysed pyrolysis of cellulose. The highly dehydrated cellulose also favours char formation likely via furanic structures which are finally transformed into aromatic structures at temperatures >300 °C. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58526 10.1016/j.fuel.2016.12.067 Elsevier Ltd restricted
spellingShingle Long, Yu
Yu, Yun
Chua, Yee Wen
Wu, Hongwei
Acid-catalysed cellulose pyrolysis at low temperatures
title Acid-catalysed cellulose pyrolysis at low temperatures
title_full Acid-catalysed cellulose pyrolysis at low temperatures
title_fullStr Acid-catalysed cellulose pyrolysis at low temperatures
title_full_unstemmed Acid-catalysed cellulose pyrolysis at low temperatures
title_short Acid-catalysed cellulose pyrolysis at low temperatures
title_sort acid-catalysed cellulose pyrolysis at low temperatures
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/58526