apparatus and the gas cell was heated to 150 C. Pyrolysis was
performed using a Setaram Labsys TG-DSC following three different
heating rates (10 C/min, 30 C/min and 50 C/min).
The acquisition time and the residence time are two important
parameters to handle while connecting the TG and the FTIR. The
acquisition time is the time interval between the collection of two
consecutive spectra, which has to be as close as possible to the
residence time (volume cell/gas flow) to allow the molecules to
pass through the cell volume and to prevent a mistaken quantification
[23].
2.2. Experimental methodology and fuels
The mass of biomass to be pyrolyzed during the set of tests was
10 mg from four different biomasses (pine, olive stone, hazelnut
shell and brassica). Table 1 shows the composition of every biofuel
used in the experimental part of this work. The thermo-balance
was continuously purged with 100 ml/min of N2 that sweep the
pyrolysis gases, allowing them to reach the FTIR. To achieve a good
initial TG signal, an isothermal step of 5 min at room temperature
was chosen. To remove moisture, the samples were heated to
105 C during an isothermal step of 10 min and continued to be
heated by one of the three different heating ramps (10, 30 and
50 C/min) to a final temperature of 1000 C.