Investigation on the effects of catalytic temperature and addition proportion of steel slag on the pyrolysis characteristics of corn stalk

Promoting the resource utilization of two typical types of solid waste, steel slag (SS) and corn stalk (CS), is a key path to facilitating the transformation of the global energy structure. The effects of reaction temperature (500–900 °C) and SS addition proportion (2–15%) on the yields and properties of the three-phase products from CS pyrolysis were systematically studied in this work. The results indicated that pyrolysis temperature and SS addition proportion had significant influences on the distributions of the three-phase products and gas components from CS pyrolysis. Increasing pyrolysis temperature increased the gas yield, reduced the bio-oil and biochar yields, and changed the product properties. The addition of SS significantly reduced the bio-oil yield and decreased the O-containing compounds. Increasing the addition proportion of SS made the biochar denser and caused the specific surface area significantly decrease. The catalytic effect of SS was mainly attributed to a series of reduction reactions of the iron-based oxides in it. SS improved the pyrolysis product quality, especially enhancing the application potential of gas and biochar. The results obtained in this work provide valuable data and engineering application references for the comprehensive treatment and utilization of SS and biomass.