Charcoal Production via Multistage Pyrolysis

Interests in charcoal usage have recently been re-ignited because it is believed that charcoal is a muchbetter fuel than wood. The conventional charcoal production consumes a large amount of energy due to the prolonged heating time and cooling time which contribute to the process completing in one to several days. Wood py-rolysis consists of both endothermic and exothermic reactions as well as the decomposition of the different components at different temperature range （hemicellulose： 200-260℃; cellulose： 240-350℃ and lignin： 280-500℃）. Inthis study we propose a multistagepyrolysis which is an approach to carry out pyrolysis with multiple heating stages so as to gain certain processing benefits. We propose a three-stage approach which includes rapid stepwise heating stage to a variable target temperatures of 250 ℃, 300℃, 350 ℃ and 400 ℃, slow and gradual heatingstage to a tinal temperature of 400℃ and adiabatic with cooling stage. The multi-stage pyrolysis process can save 30% energy and the processing time by using a first temperature target of 300 ℃and heating rate of 5℃.min-1 to produce a fixed-carbon yield of 25.73% as opposed to the base case with a fixed-carbon yield of23.18%.

Strengthening and toughening mechanism of a Cu-bearing high-strength low-alloy steel with refined tempered martensite/bainite(M/B)matrix and minor inter-critical ferrite

The microstructure–mechanical property relationship of a Cu-bearing low-carbon high-strength low-alloy steel,subjected to a novel multistage heat treatment including quenching(Q),lamellarization(L)and tempering(T),is presented.Yield strength of 989.5 MPa and average toughness at-80℃of 41 J were obtained in this steel after quenching and tempering(QT)heat treatments.Specimen QLT gained a little lower yield strength(982.5 MPa),but greatly enhanced average toughness at-80℃(137 J).To further clarify the strengthening and toughening mechanisms in specimen QLT,parameters of microstructural characteristic and crack propagation process were compared and analyzed for specimens Q,QL,QT and QLT.The microstructure of tempered martensite/bainite(M/B)in specimen QT changed to refined tempered M/B matrix mixed with minor IF(inter-critical ferrite)in specimen QLT.Cu-rich precipitates existed in tempered M/B for both specimens QT and QLT,as well as in IF.Compared with QT,adding a lamellarization step before tempering made the effective grains of specimen QLT refined and also led to coarser Cu-rich precipitates in tempered M/B matrix.The weaker strengthening effect of coarser Cu-rich precipitates should be a key reason for the slightly lower yield strength in specimen QLT than in specimen QT.No austenite was found in all specimens Q,QL,QT and QLT.Specimen QLT showed purely ductile fracture mode at-80℃due to the refined effective grains.The greatly improved toughness is mainly attributed to the enhanced energy of crack propagation.The combination of refined microstructure,softened matrix and deformation of minor'soft'IF during crack propagation led to the most superior toughness of specimen QLT among all specimens.