User:Gsmoke/sandbox

Composition
Because there are so many variables that can affect the composition of liquid smoke, constituent analyses vary widely in the literature. Many hundreds of compounds have been reported in smoke and liquid smoke. Acetic acid [CAS 64-19-7], glycoaldehyde [141-46-8], acetol [CAS 116-09-6], levoglucosan [498-07-7] and formic acid [64-18-6] are among the compounds reported in the highest concentrations. These same five compounds can be found in the literature in condensates from most wood sources irrespective of the method of pyrolysis although conditions of pyrolysis or subsequent treatment do cause the amounts to vary.

In the highly controlled pyrolysis of wood using Ensyn's RTP tm,, yield of 75% of the mass of 8% moisture sawdust is found. The remaining mass is 13% charcoal and 12% non-condensable gases. By fractionation with addition of water for liquid smoke production, the highest mass component in the condensate is found to be water insoluble tar which is a heterogeneous mixture of reaction products largely from the [lignin] in wood. With simple water addition and phase separation, about 40% of the mass of the condensate is found to be tar. The remaining 60% is water (both free water from the wood and reaction water), water soluble organic compounds and a small amount of dissolved tar.