• Energy Research

The dry and hydrothermal torrefacation of on Camellia Shell (CS) was carried on three different devices- batch autoclave, quartz tube, and auger reactor. The torrefied bio-char products were investigated via TGA, elemental analysis and industrial analysis. Moreover, the pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis properties of torrefied bio-char were investigated. The results showed torrefaction significantly influenced the content of hemicellulose in CS. And hydrothermal torrefaction via batch autoclave and dry torrefaction via auger reactors promoted the hemicellulose to strip from the CS. Quartz tube and auger reactor were beneficial for devolatilization and improving heat value of torrefied bio-char. The result showed that the main products were phenols and acids. And hydrothermal torrefaction pretreatment effectively reduced the acids content from 34.5% to 13.2% and enriched the content of phenols (from 27.23% to 60.05%) in bio-oil due to the decreasing of hemicellulos in torrefied bio-char. And the catalyst had slight influence on the bio-oil distribution.

Urban sludge was treated by Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC). The effect of hydrothermal carbonization temperature, mixing with or without catalysts on solid products yield, heavy metal contents, turbidity and COD value was evaluated. The result showed solid products yield decreased from 92.04% to 52.65% when the temperature increased from 180 to 300°C. And the Cu, Zn, and Pb contents under exchangeable states decreased and reached discharge standard. Addition of FeCl3 or Al(OH)3 resulted in a significant increase in the exchangeable states of Zn, Pb, Cr, and Cd and decrease in their residual states. The turbidity and COD value of hydrothermal liquid decreased from 450° to 175°, and 13 to 6.8g/L, with increasing hydrothermal temperature. Comparison with HTC, solid productivity from low-temperature pyrolysis is higher. The exchangeable states of Cu, Zn, and Cr exceeded the limiting values. Our results show HTC can facilitate transforming urban sludge into no-pollution and energy-rich products.

Abstract Chemical-looping gasification (CLG) of Chlorella vulgaris was carried out in a quartz tube reactor under different microwave pretreatment. The product fractional yields, conversion efficiency and analysis of performance parameters were analyzed in order to obtain the characterization and optimal conditions of microwave pretreatment for syngas production. The results indicate that microwave pretreatment is conducive to CLG reaction. Furthermore, the higher power or the longer time in the process of microwave pretreatment could not exhibit a better effect on CLG. In addition, 750 W and 60 s is the optimal microwave pretreatment power and time respectively to obtain a great reducibility of oxygen carrier, high conversion efficiency, high products yield and good LHV. The H 2 yield, LHV, gasification efficiency and gas yield increased obviously from 18.12%, 12.14 MJ/Nm 3 , 59.76% and 1.04 Nm 3 /kg of untreated Chlorella vulgaris to 24.55%, 13.13 MJ/Nm 3 , 72.16% and 1.16 Nm 3 /kg of the optimal microwave pretreatment condition, respectively.

Abstract BTX (benzene, toluene, and xylene) was gained from anisole by gas-phase hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) at ambient pressure with zeolite catalysts. The role of supports such as HBeta, ZSM-5, HY, and γ-Al2O3 was investigated. The effect of temperature and 1/WHSV on the product distribution was also evaluated. The results show that the content of BTX with Fe/Ni/HBeta catalysts, peaked at 24.87%. Fe/Ni/ZSM-5 promoted transalkylation and Fe/Ni/γ-Al2O3 exhibited the lowest anisole conversion of 30%. N2-adsorption, XRD and NH3-TPD analysis of Fe/Ni/supports suggested that BET surface, pore size, amount and intensity of acid sites significantly influenced products distribution. BTX and phenol were mainly products, indicating that hydrogenolysis focused on Caromatic-OCH3 and O-CH3 skeletons, not on π-bone in the anisole ring at ambient pressure. The products such as toluene, xylene, and other multi-methylated aromatics were from transalkylation of benzene and phenol. Fe/Ni supported catalysts were not only beneficial for HDO to remove oxygen but also for transalkylation, mining carbon loss.

Bio-oil from biomass is considered a promising fuel candidate due to its high energy density. The organic molecules in bio-oil (heavy bio-oil) that are highly viscous and corrosive are the main obs...

In order to complete using the pyrolysis gas and heat from biomass routine pyrolysis, the camellia shell was torrefied under PG atmosphere. And the chemical and physical properties of torrefied char obtained under N2 and pyrolysis gas were compared as well as the pyrolysis and combustion performance. Moreover, in order to investigate the mechanism of pyrolysis gas torrefaction, the influence of each composition such as H2, CO2 and CH4 in pyrolysis gas on the torrefaction performance was also been studied. The results show pyrolysis gas improves the volatile matter content and heat value of the torrefied char. Moreover, pyrolysis gas promotes the degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose. Chemical structure is different for torrefied char under pyrolysis gas and N2 atmosphere. And each composition in pyrolysis gas plays synergy role to the severity of torrefied char. The combustion kinetic of torrefied char were calculated using the Friedman method and the Ozawa-Flynn-Wall method.

The torrefaction performance and properties of torrefied CS (Camellia shell) bio-char obtained via dry and hydrothermal torrefaction have been compared as well as pyrolysis and combustion properties. And making of torrefied pellets and their properties such as pellet density, Meyer hardness, and energy consumption are also investigated. The results showed that dry torrefied bio-char had higher energy and density at 220 °C and decreased significantly with temperature, while hydrothermally prepared bio-char had stable energy and mass yield with temperature. The coalification status of hydrothermally bio-char is similar to that of sub-bituminous coal. The pellet formed from dry terrified bio-char via quart tube in 220 °C with high pellet density (1048 kg/m3) and low energy consumption (17.6 KJ/kg) in spite of low the Meyer hardness (6.8 N/mm2). As for the process kinetics, the activation energy via dry torrefection with auger showed lower activation energy 43.26 KJ/mol as well as lowest ignition temperature (290 °C), compared to hydrothermal torrefaction.

Abstract Acetone-butanol-ethanol can be widely obtained from biomass fermentation broth. In the article, the catalytic deoxygenation of the acetone-butanol-ethanol mixture are studied to upgrade the ABE to chemicals such as alkene and benzene derivate in a continuous fixed bed. The experiment was run at room pressure and in the temperature range of 240–320 °C using inert N2 or H2 as carrier gases as well as different WHSV to observe the effect on the deoxygenation products distribution. The results showed that ketones, long chain alkenes, cycloolefine (C9 C13, 17.44%) and benzene derivate (C7 C15, 15.77%) were obtained as the main products by catalytic deoxygenation of acetone-butanol-ethanol. Compared with single support catalysts Ni Sn/MCM-41 and Ni Sn/γ-Al2O3, the mixed support catalysts Ni Sn/MCM-41+γ-Al2O3 possessed moderate BET surface, acidic sites and good resistant ability to carbon deposition, which promoted the formation of benzene derivate,2-heptanone (8.32%) and 5-undecene (11.84%). The study supplies the data for producing long chain alkene, cycloolefine and benzene derivate from short chain precursors via combining the bio-technology and chemical conversion.

Abstract Ester products, obtaining from guaiacol and octanoic acid which were the degeneration products of lignin, were tested over sulfonic acid-functionalized SiO2 materials. The results showed that the functionalized mesoporous SiO2 had a high activity and stability, resulting in ester yield of 62%. The ratio of S/phenyl played an important role in the activity and stability of SiO2-Phenyl-SO3H. Moreover, the optimal guaiacol to octanoic acid molar ratio is 8:1. The physicochemical, structural, textural and thermal stability characteristics of the synthesized mesoporous catalysts were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface area analysis (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller equation), FT-IR and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The result of catalyst characterization and experiment of filtering catalysts from mixture showed that the SO3H- group incorporated with functionalized silica precursors. Moreover, the catalytic results indicated that SO3H-phenyl- group was the active part and the phenyl group increased the hydrophobicity of the catalyst surface, which accelerated the mobility of water, shifted the equilibrium, protected the acid sites and enhanced the activity of catalysts.