Flammability Properties of the Pyrolysis Gas Generated from Willow Wood

Abstract

Willow wood presents a real interest for biomass pyrolysis due to its fast growth, renewability, and high energy density. Following the pyrolysis of willow wood in an inert atmosphere, a multi-fuel gaseous mixture was obtained, with the following composition (by volume): 38.20% CO/21.87% H2/17.44% CH4/1.15% O2/17.15% CO2/4.19% N2. The propagation of laminar premixed flames in these multifuel mixtures with air was investigated numerically for initial temperatures from 298 to 500 K, initial pressures from 1 to 20 bar, and fuel equivalence ratios between 0.60 and 2.00. The combustion of these gaseous mixtures as free laminar premixed flames was simulated by means of the INSFLA package and an extended reaction mechanism with 592 elementary reactions and 53 species. The modelling of the gas-phase combustion delivered several important parameters: the laminar burning velocities, Su, the maximum flame temperatures, Tfl,max, the flame front thicknesses, dfl, and the peak concentrations of the main reaction intermediates. The obtained parameters, discussed in correlation with the initial pressure and temperature, afforded the determination of the overall activation parameters of multifuel oxidation with air.