Mechanism study on the effect of glycerol addition on tobacco pyrolysis

• Published in: Journal of analytical and applied pyrolysis Vol. 157; p. 105183
• Main Authors: Dai, Yujie, Xu, Jian, Zhu, Lingjun, Jiang, Jian, Zhou, Yonghao, Zhou, Guojun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.08.2021
• Subjects: Glycerol; Kinetics; Pyrolysis; Tobacco waste; Glycerol; Pyrolysis; Kinetics; Tobacco waste
• ISSN: 0165-2370; 1873-250X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jaap.2021.105183

•Glycerol addition promoted the devolatilization and char formation in tobacco pyrolysis.•Glycerol addition inhibited the formation of aromatics at high temperature.•The yields of ketones and aldehydes increased with glycerol addition. Glycerol is a main by-product in the biodiesel refining process and its blending with waste tobacco for pyrolysis can effectively improve the quality of tobacco pyrolysis products. In-depth study on the mechanism of glycerol influence on the tobacco pyrolysis process is of great significance for the pyrolytic conversion of waste tobacco to high-value chemicals. In this work, tobacco pyrolysis with different glycerol contents (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%) were studied by TG-FTIR firstly. It was found that the addition of glycerol was beneficial to the generation of volatiles from tobacco pyrolysis and the yield of tobacco pyrolytic char was increased simultaneously. The pyrolysis kinetics of tobacco with different amount of glycerol addition were then analyzed using the distributed activation energy model with double combined Gaussian functions. The results showed that the activation energy of both the devolatilization and coke formation during pyrolysis decreased significantly with the increase of glycerol addition. In addition, the distribution of pyrolysis products under 250 °C and 650 °C were compared by Py-GC-FID/MS study for both the original tobacco and the one with typical addition of glycerol. The results showed that the addition of glycerol had little impact on the pyrolysis of tobacco at low temperature, while could promote the production of ketones, aldehydes, hydrocarbons and carboxylic acids and helped to inhibit the formation of aromatic hydrocarbons at high temperature.