High quality fuel gas from biomass pyrolysis with calcium oxide

•CaO remarkably affects on the distribution of products from sawdust pyrolysis.•A system suitable for high quality fuel gas from biomass pyrolysis is developed.•Fuel gas has the tar content of under 50mg/Nm3 and LHV of above 16MJ/Nm3. The removal of CO2 and tar in fuel gas produced by biomass thermal conversion has aroused more attention due to their adverse effects on the subsequent fuel gas application. High quality fuel gas production from sawdust pyrolysis with CaO was studied in this paper. The results of pyrolysis–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py–GC/MS) experiments indicate that the mass ratio of CaO to sawdust (Ca/S) remarkably affects the behavior of sawdust pyrolysis. On the basis of Py–GC/MS results, one system of a moving bed pyrolyzer coupled with a fluid bed combustor has been developed to produce high quality fuel gas. The lower heating value (LHV) of the fuel gas was above 16MJ/Nm3 and the content of tar was under 50mg/Nm3, which is suitable for gas turbine application to generate electricity and heat. Therefore, this technology may be a promising route to achieve high quality fuel gas for biomass utilization.