Study on common amino acid pyrolysis products and analysis of pyrolysis products from interaction with aspartic acid

Abstract

Nitrogen in nitrogen-rich biomass can be converted into high-value nitrogen-containing chemicals such as pyrroles, pyridines and indoles by pyrolysis. Understanding the nitrogen transport mechanism and reaction pathways is important for the utilization of nitrogen-rich biomass. In this study, the pyrolytic reaction pathways of 16 amino acids and interaction between others with aspartic acid were analyzed by pyrolysis in a closed U-tube reactor followed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) measurements. It was found that amino acids with lighter molecular tended to produce more gases during the pyrolysis, while amino acids with heavier molecular tended to produce more liquids and solids. The gaseous products of amino acid pyrolysis mainly consisted of CO₂ and some CO, of which the content of CO₂ reached 86.21 % of glycine and 70.97 % of aspartic acid, respectively. Liquid oils contain a large number of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds, which are mainly produced by four types of reactions: cyclisation, R group removal, polymerization, and fragmentation reforming. And it was found that aspartic acid was able to promote the changes of the three phases of pyrolysis products and the formation of characteristic products.