Mechanism of Formation and Consequent Evolution of Active Cellulose during Cellulose Pyrolysis

An intermediate product that was yellow, soluble, and solid was obtained in a high-radiation flash pyrolysis reactor. Under two different radiant heat fluxes, the yields tended to both increase initially until achieving a steady state, and then increase again with the progress of reaction. The compositional analysis of the yellow product was performed on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). It was indicated that the product mainly consisted of oligosaccharides, glucose, levoglucosan, methylglyoxal and so on. The compounds including oligosaccharides such as cellobiose and cellotriose, and monosaccharides such as glucose were regarded as active cellulose. Under the higher heat flux, the relative yield of the active cellulose increased initially, followed by a decreasing trend, and achieved a maximum mass fraction of 68% (w) in the soluble yellow product. The oligosaccharides with higher degree of polymerization (DP) were the primary components. Under the lower heat flux the yield of active cellulose was relatively lower, achieving a maximum of about 57% (w), and more saccharides with lower DP were contained. It was suggested that active cellulose was quite unstable at high temperature, and easily decomposed into saccharides with lower DP, even char, volatiles, and gaseous products. Finally an improved mechanism was proposed to describe the reaction route of formation and consequent evolution of active cellulose during cellulose pyrolysis.