LAUSR

Abstract The ability to carry out pyrolysis of entire wood chips and rods instead of small particles would be of great value for mobile pyrolysis units, because of the large possible savings in grinding costs (7–9% of total process costs). With this goal in mind, we designed and constructed a novel lab-scale ablative reactor for fast pyrolysis of entire wood chips and even wood rods, converting those directly into a high yield of bio-oil for the first time. The bio-oil yield from fast pyrolysis of wood chips (10 × 20 mm) was as high as 60 wt.%, similar to that from wood crumbles (2 × 2 mm). Additionally, the yield and composition of bio-oil from ablative pyrolysis were in the same range as those obtained from a fluidized bed reactor using