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My name is Hans-Joachim Kathagen. I graduated in chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe
and have been working at the Engler-Bunte-Institute in the area of combustion technologies since 1st January 2010.
My thesis topic is the study of the thermal decomposition of cellulose-based biomass.
This is a very broad title, and what it actually means is that I’m studying the pyrolysis mechanisms
of various biomass plant materials, in this case of wood.
The tests that I’m conducting focus mainly on fractionated pyrolysis.
To do this, I weigh a wood sample of usually about 100 mg,
and place it into the reactor. The reactor itself consists of the reactor tube in a furnace.
The reactor leads to a distribution valve, a heated distribution valve, to which several cold traps are connected.
The cold traps are cooled down with liquid nitrogen, in order to absorb the resulting substances.
The furnace itself can then be heated up at different heating rates to temperatures of up to 1,000 °C,
although I mostly use temperatures of up to 600 - 700 °C.
The resulting products are then recorded depending on the purpose of the measurements being taken,
and the fraction is divided according to the temperature ranges to be analyzed.
When the pyrolysis is finished, the sample is taken up in 5 mg of methanol
and then investigated by means of a gas chromatograph combined with a mass spectrometer.
This is an entirely basic research topic. It has been investigated in similar ways before,
but not in exactly the same way,
and, you know, it's always interesting to venture a little bit into completely new territories.
Particularly, for me basic research is somewhat more interesting than applied research.
In basic research, you just don’t know what will come out of it, you have absolutely no idea where it will lead to,
and this makes the whole thing even a bit more like a children’s surprise egg!