Product distributions from the pyrolysis of a common sample of pine-wood have been determined for two reactors with different configurations. The ablative pyrolysis reactor operates on the principle of ''scraping'' a continuous stream of biomass particles onto a heated surface under conditions of high relative motion and high applied pressure. In the wire-mesh reactor configuration, fine dispersion of a small quantity [4-6 mg] of sample and the rapid removal of volatiles from the reaction zone ensures that volatiles released during pyrolysis are captured under conditions minimising extra particle secondary reactions. Comparison of liquid yields determined for the two reactors has been undertaken in order to assess the effect of secondary reactions on yields during ablative pyrolysis. Structural characterisations and comparison of liquids produced in the two reactors have been carried out by size exclusion chromatography, UV-fluorescence spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy. Slight differences in structures were apparent either due to cracking of lignin-derived macromolecules on the heated reactor surface or low molecular weight components formed during slow pyrolysis reactions of a small proportion of the feed material. Comparison of the ablative liquids with those from other ablative pyrolysis reactors show similar trends in molecular mass distributions and structures suggesting that the ablative pyrolysis process inherently cracks some liquids during volatilisation. Dry organic liquid yields from the ablative pyrolysis reactor were between 2.5 and 5.3% lower than the wire-mesh reactor between 55 degrees and 600 degrees C. This is believed to be a result of non-optimised reactor operation of the ablative pyrolysis reactor.