Author(s)

Félix Antonio López, Olga Rodríguez, Andrea Urien, Belén Lobato, Teresa Álvarez Centeno, Francisco José Alguacil

Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Metalúrgicas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain.
Instituto Nacional del Carbón, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Oviedo, Spain.

This paper reports the physico-chemical characteristics of the products derived from the thermolysis (thermolytic distillation) of waste silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) wood at different temperatures (400℃- 600℃) in a pilot scale plant. Depending on the thermolysis temperature, the procedure yielded 45 - 53 wt% pyroligneous acid with a high water content (80 - 86 wt%) and pH ≈ 3.6. The process also produced a carbonaceous solid or biochar (23 - 26 wt%), its properties strongly dependent on the thermolysis temperature. Gases (20 - 31 wt%) were also produced; these were transformed into electrical energy via a gas turbine. The pyroligneous acid was centrifuged to isolate a subfraction composed mostly of phenols (phenol, mequinol and furfural) with a total C content of 68 - 74 wt%. The remainder was subjected to fractionated distillation at laboratory scale, and the distillate subjected to liquid-liquid extraction using diethyl ether in two stages to obtain a bio-oil composed mainly of acetic acid (≈47%), aldehydes, ketones and alcohols (≈31%), phe- nols (≈18%) and aliphatic alcohols. The characteristics of the bio-oil depended on the thermolysis temperature.

Thrermolysis; Abies alba Mill.; Bio-Oil; Biochar

F. López, O. Rodríguez, A. Urien, B. Lobato, T. Centeno and F. Alguacil, "Physico-Chemical Characteristics of the Products Derived from the Thermolysis of Waste Abies alba Mill. Wood," Journal of Environmental Protection, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2013, pp. 26-30. doi: 10.4236/jep.2013.41003.