LAUSR

To design and optimize furnaces, modeling is a key tool. Modeling of solid fuel conversion requires the availability of valid kinetic data for the parametrization of combustion models. To provide kinetic data for low temperature devolatilization, 1 g of wood dust (oak and spruce) was devolatilized under isothermal conditions at 250–400 °C in ambient air. Between 250 and 300 °C, the reaction mechanism changes; thus only the data of 300–400 °C can be used for a kinetic analysis. For spruce, a pre-exponential factor of 237 s–1 and an activation energy of 0.222 × 105 J/mol were measured, and for oak 89.6 s–1 and 0.181 × 105 J/mol. As compared to literature data, the reaction is less temperature sensitive, indicating a diffusion limitation caused by the large sample size and experimental conditions. However, the results might be closer to reality as the conditions are similar to a furnace during start-up. Additionally, the release of the main elements, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, was measured. At low tempera...