I was thinking to myself, what would happen if you were to put a lump of wood in a zero oxygen environment and superheat it? It couldn’t burn because fire needs fuel, heat and oxygen however because wood is a mixture of cellulose + other things, it can’t really just melt... If this were done, what would really happen?
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1Pyrolysis – andselisk Mar 19 '21 at 07:17
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2A crude version of this process is done to create charcoal. Piles of wood are structured so that burning some creates a great deal of heat in the centre of the pile but little oxygen. The centre of the pile pyrolises leaving charcoal. – matt_black Mar 19 '21 at 09:54
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Also a name for methanol was Wood spirit. And ants were distilled leading to formic acid. – Alchimista Mar 19 '21 at 09:59
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Similar: Can paper burn without oxygen or air? – ron Mar 19 '21 at 13:45
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@matt_black - indeed, and similarly turning coal into coke. – Jon Custer Mar 19 '21 at 14:11