Structural Characterization and Pyrolysis Behavior of Cellulose and Hemicellulose Isolated from Softwood Pinus armandii Franch

Cellulose and hemicellulose were isolated directly from softwood Pinus armandii Franch by the alkali method for pyrolysis mechanism study. Structural characterization based on FTIR, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR showed that the hemicellulose was mainly composed of galactoglucomannan and arabinoxylan with abundant branches, while the cellulose was mainly composed of β-1,4-glucan with a few residual hemicellulose fragments. Pyrolysis of extracted cellulose showed high char yield due to the lower crystallinity. Hemicellulose pyrolysis showed a shoulder peak at low temperature and high char yield because of its abundant branches. A double-Gaussian distributed activation energy model was introduced for pyrolysis kinetics analysis. The devolatilization process for both cellulose and hemicellulose was dominated by a parallel decomposition reaction pathway. The distributions of their pyrolysis products were analyzed by Py-GC/MS. It is suggested that the utilization of isolated sample as model compound could give a better understanding of the biomass pyrolysis mechanism.