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Although lignin is one of the most abundant renewable organic materials in the world, it is principally a waste product of the paper industry which is used for the production of heat and power. Hydrothermal lignin depolymerisation aids in facilitating the valorization of lignin in aqueous solutions or suspensions. For the recovery of valuable phenolic products from lignin it is crucial to understand the main reaction pathways of lignin degradation and the reaction kinetics. Batch experiments were carried out for studying the depolymerisation of an enzymatic hydrolysis lignin from spruce wood in near critical water. Phenolic products were extracted from the aqueous phase and quantified via gas chromatography. The main reaction products were grouped (lumped), the main reaction pathways of hydrothermal lignin depolymerisation were discovered and formal kinetic rate coefficients were determined. Optimization of these formal kinetic parameters yielded a satisfying approximation of the experimental yields of phenolic products and describes the most important tendencies over temperature and residence time of solid residue and gas. The model is validated by the comparison with other kinetic studies of the degradation of lignin as well as the decomposition of intermediate phenolics, such as catechols and methoxyphenols.

In the past decade, microalgae biomass has been attracting considerable interest in valuable biocomponents and biofuel production. Meanwhile, plastic waste handling has become one of the most pressing global environmental concerns. Coprocessing of plastic waste and biomass has previously been reported to produce good quality fuel oil and high-value chemicals. In this study, we examined a coliquefaction process (co-HTL) of 2 microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris (Cv) and Nannochloropsis gaditana (Ng), with nine types of common plastics. In a first step, the co-HTL process was conducted in microautoclave reactors with a fixed algae/plastic mass ratio (50:50) at a temperature of 350 °C and a pressure of 16 MPa for a holding time of 15 min. Among the different types of plastics, positive synergistic effects between polycarbonate (PC), polystyrene (PS), and microalgae have been observed: (1) Plastics showed greater decomposition. (2) HTL crude oil yields were increased. Ng algae exhibits a higher interaction ability with plastics. Then, PC and PS were coprocessed with Ng algae using the response surface methodology to optimize the effects of temperature (300–400 °C), algae/plastic mass ratio (20:80–80:20), and holding time (5–45 min) on HTL crude oil yield. Software-based data analysis of the co-HTL experiments were conducted, and the optimal parameters were proposed, which were verified by the experiment results; Ng+PC (20:80 wt %) exhibits the highest crude oil yield of 67.2% at 300 °C with a 5 min holding time, while Ng+PS (80:20 wt %) generates 51.4 wt % crude oil yield at 400 °C and a 25 min holding time. Finally, the analytical results of elemental analysis, FTIR, 1H NMR, GPC, GC-MS, and TGA on the crude oil produced from pure microalgae HTL and co-HTL were compared, indicating that Ng+PC crude oil is more suitable for aromatic chemicals production and Ng+PS crude oil could be more favorable for biofuel applications.

To mitigate global warming, humankind has been forced to develop new efficient energy solutions based on renewable energy sources. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising technology that can efficiently produce bio-oil from several biomass sources. The HTL process uses sub- or supercritical water for producing bio-oil, water-soluble organics, gaseous products and char. Black liquor mainly contains cooking chemicals (mainly alkali salts) lignin and the hemicellulose parts of the wood chips used for cellulose digestion. This review explores the effects of different process parameters, solvents and catalysts for the HTL of black liquor or black liquor-derived lignin. Using short residence times under near- or supercritical water conditions may improve both the quality and the quantity of the bio-oil yield. The quality and yield of bio-oil can be further improved by using solvents (e.g., phenol) and catalysts (e.g., alkali salts, zirconia). However, the solubility of alkali salts present in black liquor can lead to clogging problem in the HTL reactor and process tubes when approaching supercritical water conditions.

Abstract Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) biocrude is a promising source of energy with potential for co-processing with conventional fuels or as a drop-in fuel. However, it needs upgrading to reduce heteroatoms (e.g., N, S, O), improve physical properties, stability, and miscibility with hydrocarbons. Distillation is a conventional physical upgrading method that has not been studied extensively for biocrude using an industry-accepted procedure on a large scale. In this study, an algae-based biocrude was distilled into four fractions using ASTM D2892 standard method: Fraction 1 (

AbstractFor chemical recycling of plastic refuses a cascade of cycled‐spheres reactors has been developed combining separation and decomposition of polymer mixtures by stepwise pyrolysis at moderate temperatures. In low‐temperature pyrolysis, mixtures of poly(vinyl chloride), polystyrene and polyethylene or polystyrene, polyamide 6 and polyethylene have been separated into hydrogen chloride, styrene and polyamide 6 and aliphatic compounds from polyethylene decomposition. Compared with the low‐temperature pyrolysis of the single components, some interactions between the polymers are found when pyrolyzing mixtures. Some mechanistic aspects of these interactions are discussed.

Abstract With the rapid growth in population and urbanization, a development in sustainable treatment of sewage sludge has become an urgent environmental concern globally. Lipid extraction has been investigated in order to valorize waste sewage sludge treatment through a pathway that leads to biodiesel. In this work, an integrated approach that combines lipid extraction of sewage sludge with hydrothermal liquefaction of the lipid-extracted sludge was studied in order to maximize valorization. The hydrothermal process was performed at temperatures ranging from 250 to 350 °C with 20 min. Regarding the bio-crude: below 300 °C, similar values are found with and without lipid-extraction, with the former variant containing more nitrogenated compounds stemming from Maillard reactions, while the latter more hydrocarbons; at 350 °C, higher bio-crude is obtained from raw sewage sludge owning to the conversion of lipids. Palmitic acid was selected as a model lipid to elucidate the role of lipids during the process, as well as to provide an improved understanding of the reaction network. Energy recovery reached values of 85.4% for hydrothermal liquefaction of sewage sludge and 98.3% for integrated approach considering the whole range of biofuel products. The energy consumption ratio was applied to estimate energetic efficiency for the combined process, making it possible to estimate the breakeven point of the process, plus the efficiency of both the hydrothermal process on its own in comparison with the combined option.