Pyrolysis in the Chemical Industry and Its Major Industrial Applications

Pyrolysis is an irreversible thermochemical treatment process of materials at elevated temperatures in an inert atmosphere. Pyrolysis is used heavily in the chemical industry to produce many forms of carbon and other chemicals from petroleum, coal, wood, oil shale, biomass or organic waste materials, and it is the basis of several methods for producing fuel from biomass. The end products of pyrolysis include solid residual coproducts and ash, noncondensable gases and condensable liquids. These products can be controlled by optimizing pyrolysis parameters such as temperature and residence time.