Effects of co-pyrolysis interaction performance of cellulose and lignin on the gas products and hydrogen generation path

In this study, cellulose and lignin were subjected to co-pyrolysis for the production of syngas. For the pyrolysis experiments, three influencing factors were selected using a response surface method: pyrolysis temperature (400–800 °C), residence time (5–30 min), and lignin mass percentage (0–100 wt%). At a pyrolysis temperature of 477.4 °C, a residence time of 30 min, and a lignin mass percentage of 50 wt%, the actual syngas yield was 77.2 % higher than the theoretical value for the co-pyrolysis. In addition, the hydrogen volume fraction was improved by up to 24.87 % because of the interaction between cellulose and lignin during their co-pyrolysis (pyrolysis temperature of 800 °C, residence time of 17.5 min, lignin mass percentage of 80.65 wt%). Finally, the hydrogen formation process was simulated, using reactive force field molecular dynamics. The results showed that hydrogen molecules began to appear at a simulation time of 0.479 ns and then gradually increased in number with progressing simulation time. In addition, the hydrogen generation pathways were obtained by this simulation method. This study provides a data foundation for optimizing syngas and hydrogen production from biomass.