Fast pyrolysis utilizes biomass to produce a product that is used both as an energy source and a feedstock for chemical production. Considerable efforts have been made to convert wood biomass to liquid fuels and chemicals since the oil crisis in mid-1970s. This review focuses on the recent developments in the wood pyrolysis and reports the characteristics of the resulting bio-oils, which are the main products of fast wood pyrolysis. Virtually any form of biomass can be considered for fast pyrolysis. Most work has been performed on wood, because of its consistency and comparability between tests. However, nearly 100 types of biomass have been tested, ranging from agricultural wastes such as straw, olive pits, and nut shells to energy crops such as miscanthus and sorghum. Forestry wastes such as bark and thinnings and other solid wastes, including sewage sludge and leather wastes, have also been studied. In this review, the main (although not exclusive) emphasis has been given to wood. The literature on woo...

Pyrolysis of Wood/Biomass for Bio-oil: A Critical Review

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/1018032.pdf

Polymer nanotechnology: Nanocomposites

Molecular self-assembly is the spontaneous association of molecules under equilibrium conditions into stable, structurally well-defined aggregates joined by noncovalent bonds. Molecular self-assembly is ubiquitous in biological systems and underlies the formation of a wide variety of complex biological structures. Understanding self-assembly and the associated noncovalent interactions that connect complementary interacting molecular surfaces in biological aggregates is a central concern in structural biochemistry. Self-assembly is also emerging as a new strategy in chemical synthesis, with the potential of generating nonbiological structures with dimensions of 1 to 10(2) nanometers (with molecular weights of 10(4) to 10(10) daltons). Structures in the upper part of this range of sizes are presently inaccessible through chemical synthesis, and the ability to prepare them would open a route to structures comparable in size (and perhaps complementary in function) to those that can be prepared by microlithography and other techniques of microfabrication.

Molecular self-assembly and nanochemistry: A chemical strategy for the synthesis of nanostructures

A review on polymer–layered silicate nanocomposites

The science of the total environment

The link between anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, increasing atmospheric CO2 levels, and concomitantly increasing global temperatures is established and accepted. The use of aqueous ammonia, to capture CO2 and produce an inexpensive nitrogen fertilizer, ammonium bicarbonate (ABC), is believed to be a feasible approach to CO2 sequestration. Due to the varying concentrations of reactants and varying reaction conditions, different ammonia-carbon compounds may be produced. ABC is the ideal product for maximizing NH3 utilization in CO2 capture; therefore, identification and quantification of ABC in the reaction products is mandatory. Various analytical techniques were used to distinguish and quantify the ABC. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy can only be used to distinguish ammonium carbamate, and. X-ray diffraction can be used to qualitatively distinguish ABC from the other possible products of the CO2 capture reaction. Carbon-hydrogen-nitrogen elemental analysis and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy were used to quantify ABC, with both techniques giving +/-5% agreement for ABC concentrations for 8 of 13 samples from a bench-scale aqueous ammonia CO2 scrubbing system. An additional 3 of the 13 samples were within +/-12%. Results indicate that NIR will be an ideal tool for real-time, on-line measurements of ABC in a full-scale aqueous ammonia CO2 scrubber. The ABC in 11 samples from the bench-scale scrubber at Western Kentucky University was determined by these techniques and assessed to have very good quality as a fertilizer in accordance with GB-3559-92, the Agricultural Ammonium Bicarbonate National Standard of China.

Development of an analytical method for distinguishing ammonium bicarbonate from the products of an aqueous ammonia CO2 scrubber.

Study of elemental mercury re-emission through a lab-scale simulated scrubber

Using modified fly ash for mercury emissions control for coal-fired power plant applications in China

A novel PMR polyimides (TMBZ-15) based on substituted benzidines is examined and compared to state-of-the-art PMR-15. The mechanism for the thermal decomposition of two specific PMR polyimides is obtained using TG/FTIR/MS techniques. In order to verify the pathway of polyimide degradation, a pyrolysis/GC-MS technique was employed to evaluate the organic degradation products, particularly the larger components that are destroyed in traditional TG/MS. A proposed degradation mechanism involves two main stages of decomposition, each of which produce a variety of products. The first group includes aromatic hydrocarbons, aromatic amines and nitriles, which correspond to partial fragments of polymer chains. The second group consists largely of fluorene, naphthalene and phenanthrene, which are attributed to the isomerization, rearrangements and cyclizations of the aforementioned pyrolyzates at high temperature.

Wei-Ping Pan

Papers

Development of an analytical method for distinguishing ammonium bicarbonate from the products of an aqueous ammonia CO2 scrubber.

Study of elemental mercury re-emission through a lab-scale simulated scrubber

Using modified fly ash for mercury emissions control for coal-fired power plant applications in China

Thermal Degradation Study of Polymerization of Monomeric Reactants (PMR) Polyimides

Effect of co-combustion of chicken litter and coal on emissions in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed combustor