Characterization of Japanese cedar bio-oil produced using a bench-scale auger pyrolyzer

A bench-scale auger reactor was designed for use as a laboratory-scale fast pyrolyzer for producing bio-oil from Japanese cedar. An analytical pyrolysis method was performed simultaneously to determine the distribution of pyrolysis products. The pyrolysis temperature was found to have the greatest influence on the bio-oil characteristics; bio-oil yields increased as the pyrolysis temperature increased from 450 to 550 °C. The concentration of levoglucosan in the bio-oil, however, decreased significantly with increasing pyrolysis temperature, while it increased following analytical pyrolysis. The same results were obtained for 4-vinylguaiacol and E-isoeugenol, which were the major secondary products produced in the present study. Compared to the yields of these major products obtained via analytical pyrolysis, the yields from the auger reactor were very low, indicating that the auger reactor process had a longer vapor residence time than the analytical pyrolysis process, resulting in the acceleration of secondary reactions of the pyrolysates. The pH values and densities of the bio-oils produced in the auger reactor were similar to those reported by researchers using woody biomass, despite their lower viscosities. From these results, it was concluded that the pyrolysis temperature and residence time of the pyrolysates played a significant role in determining the characteristics of the cedar bio-oil.