# Influence of carrier gas on pyrolysis and gasification of wood pellet

Alice Wittmann, Jean-François Brilhac, Cornelius Schönnenbeck, Guillaume

Gerandi, Alain Brillard, Valérie Tschamber

► To cite this version:

Alice Wittmann, Jean-François Brilhac, Cornelius Schönnenbeck, Guillaume Gerandi, Alain Brillard, et al.. Influence of carrier gas on pyrolysis and gasification of wood pellet. 12th European Combustion Meeting (ECM), Apr 2025, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. hal-05084453

HAL Id: hal-05084453

https://uha.hal.science/hal-05084453v1

Submitted on 10 Oct 2025

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# INFLUENCE OF CARRIER GAS ON PYROLYSIS AND GASIFICATION OF WOOD PELLET

A. WITTMANN, J-F. BRILHAC, C. SCHÖNNENBECK, G. GERANDI, A. BRILLARD, O. ALLGAIER, V. TSCHAMBER

Université de Haute-Alsace, LGRE UHA UR 2334, F-68093 Mulhouse, Cedex, France

## CONTEXT

Europe is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 and has established a 55% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, in line with the European Climate Law (2021). Oxy-fuel combustion through chemical looping combustion (CLC) is a promising technique for decarbonizing industrial processes generating hard-to-abate CO₂ emissions. By using biomass, Bio-CLC goes further and achieves negative CO₂ emissions.

**Aim of the study:** understanding the impact of CO₂-rich atmosphere on the initial stages (pyrolysis and gasification) of biomass devolatilization

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

## MATERIALS AND METHODS

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

* THC: Total HydroCarbons

### Tested parameters

**Temperatures:** 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1000 °C

**Biomass:** end-of-waste pine pellet

### Two-step carbon balance protocol

1. Pyrolysis 100% N₂ (atm. 1) or gasification under mixtures CO₂/N₂ 20:80 (atm. 2) and 40:60 (atm. 3)
   → C(light gases) by integrating CO, CO₂ and THC signals

2. Oxidation of the residual product under air (atm. 4)
   → C(char) by integrating CO₂ signal

Calculation of
C(residual)

## OXY3C STAKEHOLDERS

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

## RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

### Atmosphere influence

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /></figure>

Increasing CO₂ concentration to 40% accelerates the gasification reaction (b) but does not affect the total carbon yields of light gas at a given temperature (a)

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>100% N₂ – Light gas emissions during pyrolysis and char oxidation</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>20:80 mixture CO₂/N₂ – Light gas emissions during gasification and remaining mass fraction</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>

### Temperature influence

Pyrolysis results show an increase in light gas emissions with temperature, and a corresponding decrease in residual heavy organics (e.g. tar). Emitted light gases, ranked by amounts, are CO, THC, H₂, CO₂, NO and NO₂. Furthermore, the char yield decreases slightly. Gasification is observed from 800 °C and fully evident from 900 °C.

## CONCLUSION

Pyrolysis (100% N₂) and gasification (20:80 and 40:60 mixtures CO₂/N₂) of pine wood pellets were conducted in a drop tube furnace at temperatures between 600 and 1000 °C. An innovative approach combining simultaneous monitoring of mass loss and gaseous emissions was proposed. The resulted carbon balance enables to determine time-resolved emissions of heavy organic compounds.