Effect of Feedstock Water Leaching and Thermal Treatment on the Pyrolysis Condensate of Pine Bark

Babinszki, Bence and Wang, Liang and Skreiberg, Oyvind and Sebestyén, Zoltán and Czirok, István Sándor and Czégény, Zsuzsanna (2026) Effect of Feedstock Water Leaching and Thermal Treatment on the Pyrolysis Condensate of Pine Bark. CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS, 125. pp. 355-360. ISSN 1974-9791

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Abstract

There is a growing demand for biocarbon in metallurgical applications. While biocarbon is primarily produced from stem wood, it is crucial to diversify feedstock sources to ensure sustainability, high availability, and costefficiency. Pine bark, a significant forestry waste stream, represents a promising alternative. However, biocarbon production via pyrolysis generates significant condensable liquid by-products. Although often discarded, these condensates can become valuable resources through detailed characterization and upgrading. In this study, pine bark chips were pyrolyzed in a fixed-bed reactor. To mitigate the high inorganic content typical of bark, a portion of the feedstock underwent water leaching prior to pyrolysis. The impact of leaching on the resulting condensate composition was evaluated using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis. Since direct utilization of raw condensates is hindered by high water content, post-pyrolysis thermal treatments were applied to condensates from both leached and unleached samples. The thermal treatment of the condensate samples was performed in a muffle furnace at 140 and 160 °C for 2 hours. GC/MS analysis of the thermally treated condensates revealed that heating at 140 °C significantly enriched the organic content, evidenced by higher compound intensities compared to raw condensates. Treatment at 160 °C showed a similar trend but favored the retention of heavier compounds (e.g., levoglucosan) while significantly reducing highly volatile compounds (e.g., acetic acid). These findings provide critical data for the biocarbon industry, supporting the utilization of pine bark as a feedstock and offering strategies for the valorization of condensate by-products.

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