Data-driven Assessment of Desulfurization Fly Ash Catalysis in Cotton-stalk and Model-compound Pyrolysis

Jiuwei Huang*
Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
*Corresponding email: jiuwei.lab@gmail.com

Desulfurization fly ash (DFA) is an alkaline mineral by-product with potential value as a low-cost catalyst for biomass pyrolysis upgrading. The original study was organized as a mathematical-modeling contest report, which fragmented the scientific logic and mixed descriptive analysis with unsupported high-order fitting claims. In the present manuscript, the study is reconstructed as a journal-style article centered on a single mechanistic question: How does DFA loading redistribute tar, water, char and syngas yields, and how do the gas fingerprints differ among cotton stalk (CS), cellulose model compound (CMCpd) and lignin model compound (LMC)? Product-yield values were reconstructed from the reported equations and figures in the source report, whereas gas-yield values were taken from the reported table for CS and digitized from the original gas-yield plots for CMCpd and LMC when editable spreadsheets were unavailable. The reanalysis reveals three distinct response modes. In CS pyrolysis, increasing DFA suppresses tar and markedly enriches H2, indicating a shift from condensable to gaseous products. CMCpd shows the strongest H2-selective pathway, but tar suppression is not observed; instead, the system moves toward hydrogen-rich yet tar-promoted behavior. LMC remains char-dominated and CO2– and CH4-rich, showing only limited hydrogen upgrading. A mechanism-guided and leave-one-out cross-validated interpretation is proposed in place of over-parameterized polynomial or generic artificial-intelligence fitting. The results support the view that DFA can promote cracking, deoxygenation and gas reforming, but that the attainable upgrading route depends strongly on feedstock structure.

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Huang, J. (2026) Data-driven Assessment of Desulfurization Fly Ash Catalysis in Cotton-stalk and Model-compound Pyrolysis. Scientific Research Bulletin, 3(2), 49-55.

Published

26/06/2026