Abstract
As an initial step in clarifying the mechanisms of the combustion and gasification of biomass, fundamental experiments on the thermal decomposition and numerical simulation for the elementary reaction of decomposed chemical species have been performed. In the experiment, various kinds of biomass particles were rapidly heated by applying an electrically induced magnetic field to the metal tray on which the object particles had been placed. It was clarified that for the two decomposition temperatures of 590 and 1040 Β°C investigated, the relationship between decomposition rate and heating time was the same, but that the components of the decomposed species were substantially different; the mole fraction of C6βC9 components for the low temperature of 590 Β°C was 3 to 10 times greater than that corresponding to 1040 Β°C. Furthermore, a close relationship was ascertained between the percentage of heavy species (C10βC20) and the amount of lignin contained in the biomass. Numerical simulation indicated that these heavy species could decompose to C1 and H~2~ at over 1000 Β°C with H~2~O acting as the oxidation agent, and that the effect of H~2~O under atmospheric pressure reaches a maximum at P~H2O~β0.7 atm. Β© 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(8): 527β538, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/htj.20139