Experimental study on the ignition characteristics of cellulose,hemicellulose, lignin and their mixtures

Ignition behaviour of biomass is an essential knowledge for plant design and process control of biomass combustion. Understanding of ignition characteristics of its main chemical components, i.e. cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and their mixtures will allow the further investigation of ignition behaviour of a wider range of biomass feedstock. This paper experimentally investigates the influences of interactions among cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin on the ignition behaviour of biomass by thermogravimetric analysis. Thermal properties of an artificial biomass, consisting of a mixture of the three components will be studied and compared to that of natural biomass in atmospheres of air and nitrogen in terms of their ignition behaviour. The results showed that the identified ignition temperatures of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin are 410 °C, 370 °C and 405 °C, respectively. It has been found that the influence of their interactions on the ignition behaviour of mixtures is insignificant, indicating that the ignition behaviour of various biomass feedstock could be predicted with high accuracy if the mass fractions of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin are known. While the deficiencies of the determined mutual interactions would be further improved by the analytical results of the activation energies of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, their mixtures as well as natural and artificial biomass in air conditions.