Analysis of Gas Emissions During Thermal Testing Using Thermogravimetry and GC
-Neutral energy source. Along with methods for direct gas generation (biogas plants), many thermal treatment steps will be studied to enable production of high-energy solid fuels from biomass, which can then be used as blending components in conventional fuels such as coal or as a single energy source in incineration plants. In order to achieve this, the volatiles must be thermally expelled so as to obtain fixed carbon, which is an efficient energy source. In order to model the thermal treatment that includes combustion or pyrolysis in the laboratory, thermal analysis provides a range of well-established test methods. ThermogravimetryThermogravimetry (TG) enables accurate recording of temperature-dependent mass changes and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) , which are concurrently applied and enables determining energetic changes as a function of temperature. In conventional instrument combinations, such as directly coupled mass spectrometers (MS) and infrared spectrometers (FT-IR), the gases from the biomass are recorded and analyzed continuously, or they are all condensed into adsorption tubes, then thermally desorbed and subjected to a separate analysis. The decomposition processes of the main biomass components such as cellulose, hemi- cellulose and lignin overlap, so it is usually not possible to separate and detect individual components using directly coupled gas analysis systems. While previously studying products condensed in tiny adsorption tubes, on the other hand, the direct correlation with the gas separation temperature from the biomass is largely lost.