scholarly journals Development of a Thermochemical Conversion Unit for Corn Residues

2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (12) ◽  
pp. 243-250
Author(s):  
Greg M. CUBIO ◽  
Andres M. TUATES Jr ◽  
Earl LABITAD ◽  
Glenn B. PACLIJAN ◽  
Ofero A. CAPARINO
2018 ◽  
Vol 225 ◽  
pp. 04001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norazilah Tamili ◽  
Lee Kean Chuan ◽  
Shaharin A. Sulaiman ◽  
Mohamad Nazmi Z. Moni ◽  
Muddasser Inayat ◽  
...  

Reliance on a single biomass to generate electrical power can cause disruption due to the inconsistencies in the supply of biomass feedstock. Co-gasification of different biomass can mitigate the problem of inconsistence biomass supply. The aim of this study to investigate thermochemical properties of corn residues (CR) and coconut shells (CS) and syngas performance produced from co-gasification of CR and CS. Biomass materials were characterized in order to understand their physical properties in relation to thermochemical conversion. Co-gasification of CR and CS was carried out in externally heated downdraft gasifier at CR:CS ratio of 50:50, 40:60 and 20: 80. CO composition obtained from blended feedstock is higher as compared to the without blended feedstock. The CO2 and CH4 concentration were increased as CS proportion increased in blend. Biomass with higher moisture content plays important role in the H2 production due to the supercritical water gasification. The blending ratio of CR and CS at 20:80 had a positive synergetic effect as evident by increase in the gas composition for CO, CH4 and H2. It is concluded that co-gasification results of CR and CS is practical and can be considered to complement each other.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 2861-2868

Lubricating oils are thick and sticky fluids used for greasing moving parts of machines and engines. This paper expresses key advances in surface engineering and the use of biomass materials as lubricant additives. In order to enhance the lubrication characteristics of base oil, the biochar lubricant additives were successfully prepared. The tribological behaviors of biochar (biomass and hybrid) lubricant additives in two types of base oils (SN500 and SN900) were evaluated. In the current study, biomass-based carbon materials (biochar and hybrid) from a thermochemical conversion unit were employed as a lubricant additive. The rheological and tribological behavior of the base oil modified with biochar additives were experimentally determined. Surface analyses via SEM confirmed the surface enhancement of the worn exterior plane via the effect produced by the biochar additives. It was also observed that the biomass biochar using SN900 improved the kinematic viscosities of the base oil more than the hybrid biochar. This may be attributed to the chars' fundamental composition, which makes the fluid’s internal resistance flow under gravitational force. With SN500, the viscosity index improves with the biochar from 106 to108 but is reduced for SN900 from 102 to 97.09.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 530
Author(s):  
Tobias Rieger ◽  
Jessen C. Oey ◽  
Volodymyr Palchyk ◽  
Alexander Hofmann ◽  
Matthias Franke ◽  
...  

More than 200 kg real waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) shredder residues from a German dismantling plant were treated at 650 °C in a demonstration scale thermochemical conversion plant. The focus within this work was the generation, purification, and analysis of pyrolysis oil. Subsequent filtration and fractional distillation were combined to yield basic chemicals in high purity. By means of fractional distillation, pure monocyclic aromatic fractions containing benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX aromatics) as well as styrene and α-methyl styrene were isolated for chemical recycling. Mass balances were determined, and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) as well as energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) measurements provided data on the purity and halogen content of each fraction. This work shows that thermochemical conversion and the subsequent refining by fractional distillation is capable of recycling WEEE shredder residues, producing pure BTEX and other monocyclic aromatic fractions. A significant decrease of halogen content (up to 99%) was achieved with the applied methods.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 874-881
Author(s):  
Laras Prasakti ◽  
Sangga Hadi Pratama ◽  
Ardian Fauzi ◽  
Yano Surya Pradana ◽  
Arief Budiman ◽  
...  

AbstractAs fossil fuels were depleting at an alarming rate, the development of renewable energy has become necessary. One of the promising renewable energy to be used is biodiesel. The interest in using third-generation feedstock, which is microalgae, is rapidly growing. The use of third-generation biodiesel feedstock will be more beneficial as it does not compete with food crop use and land utilization. The advantageous characteristic which sets microalgae apart from other biomass sources is that microalgae have high biomass yield. Conventionally, microalgae biodiesel is produced by lipid extraction followed by transesterification. In this study, combination process between hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and esterification is explored. The HTL process is one of the biomass thermochemical conversion methods to produce liquid fuel. In this study, the HTL process will be coupled with esterification, which takes fatty acid from HTL as raw material for producing biodiesel. Both the processes will be studied by simulating with Aspen Plus and thermodynamic analysis in terms of energy and exergy. Based on the simulation process, it was reported that both processes demand similar energy consumption. However, exergy analysis shows that total exergy loss of conventional exergy loss is greater than the HTL-esterification process.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5722
Author(s):  
Stefania Lucantonio ◽  
Andrea Di Giuliano ◽  
Katia Gallucci

The European research project CLARA (chemical looping gasification for sustainable production of biofuels, G.A. 817841) investigated chemical looping gasification of wheat straw pellets. This work focuses on pretreatments for this residual biomass, i.e., torrefaction and torrefaction-washing. Devolatilizations of individual pellets were performed in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed made of sand, at 700, 800, and 900 °C, to quantify and analyze the syngas released from differently pretreated biomasses; experimental data were assessed by integral-average parameters: gas yield, H2/CO molar ratio, and carbon conversion. A new analysis of devolatilization data was performed, based on information from instantaneous peaks of released syngas, by simple regressions with straight lines. For all biomasses, the increase of devolatilization temperature between 700 and 900 °C enhanced the thermochemical conversion in terms of gas yield, carbon conversion, and H2/CO ratio in the syngas. Regarding pretreatments, the main evidence is the general improvement of syngas quality (i.e., composition) and quantity, compared to those of untreated pellets; only slighter differentiations were observed concerning different pretreatments, mainly thanks to peak quantities, which highlighted an improvement of the H2/CO molar ratio in correlation with increased torrefaction temperature from 250 to 270 °C. The proposed methods emerged as suitable straightforward tools to investigate the behavior of biomasses and the effects of process parameters and biomass nature.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 276
Author(s):  
Hang Jia ◽  
Haoxi Ben ◽  
Fengze Wu

Biochar is generally accepted and increasingly valued in scientific circles as solid products in the thermochemical conversion of biomass, mainly because of its rich carbon content. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of biochar from different sources on wheat growth. In particular, this work focused on the effect of different preparation methods and raw material of biochar on the growth of wheat and aim to find a potential soil substitute that can be used for crop cultivation. Two synthetic methods were evaluated: hydrothermal conversion and pyrolysis. The characterization of biochar was determined to explore the impact of its microstructure on wheat growth. The results show that the yield of biochar produced from high-pressure reactor is significantly higher than that obtained by using microwave reactor. For example, the biochar yield obtained through the former is about six times that of the latter when using steamed bread cooked as biomass raw material. In addition, the growth trend of wheat indicates that biochar has different promoting effects on the growth of wheat in its weight and height. The pyrolyzed carbon is more suitable for wheat growth and is even more effective than soil, indicating that pyrolyzed biochar has more potential to be an alternative soil in the future. Moreover, this research tries to explore the reasons that affect crop growth by characterizing biochar (including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), biofilm electrostatic test (BET) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)). The results indicate that the biochar containing more pits and less hydroxyl functional are more suitable for storing moisture, which is one of the significant factors in the growth of crops. This study provides evidence of the effects of biochar on crop growth, both in terms of microstructure and macroscopic growth trends, which provides significant benefits for biochar to grow crops or plants.


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