lab / pyroflue
Pyroflue — Emission Factors
Reproducing Figure 8 from Buss et al. (2022), which measured flue gas emissions from pyrolysis of seven waste types — clean wood, waste timber, garden waste, two digested sludges, limed sewage sludge, and food waste reject.
The key result is expressed as emission factors (g of pollutant per kg of biochar produced). Normalizing by output mass — rather than by gas volume or input mass — makes the numbers directly comparable across different feedstocks and reactor conditions, and is the unit of choice for life-cycle assessment and regulatory benchmarking.
The three plot groups each tell a different part of the story: Major emissions (CO₂, CH₄, CO, NMVOC, TSP, PIC) capture overall combustion quality; Nitrogen emissions (NOₓ, N₂O, NH₃, HCN) reveal how nitrogen-rich feedstocks like sludge drive NOₓ formation; and Acid gases (HCl, SO₂) highlight sulfur- and chlorine-containing wastes that require downstream abatement.
Upload your own CSV to generate the same plots with your data. How emission factors are calculated →