Prediction of Energy Density and Yield of Product Fractions from Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Corn Stover Using a Chemical Kinetic Model
College
College of Engineering & Technology (Batten)
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Graduate Level
Doctoral
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising thermochemical treatment to convert biomass into biofuel. One of the research projects which a great attention was paid to is to predict how much of hydrochar and biocrude were collected or what characteristics they have from the conditions. The researchers have been often conducting research on the prediction of yields of HTL bioproduct fractions using chemical kinetic model. The model is structured with an assuming reaction network and solves numerically the reaction rate differential equations in combination with the Arrhenius equation based on the obtained data, such as weight, temperature, and time. In most cases, all elemental reactions in the model consists of pseudo-first-order reaction and it allows us to eliminate the effect of weight of feedstock. Therefore, only temperature and time have been often regarded as variables of this prediction. The current research aimed to predict higher heating values (HHVs) and weights of bioproduct fractions, such as solid residue (SR), heavy bio-oil (HBO), and Aqueous phase (AP) solute, produced from HTL of corn stover. This research is the first research to predict not only weights but also HHVs of the fractions by adding another factor, elemental composition of the feedstock and fractions, to conventional factors. In this work, weight of feedstock was also varied to confirm if there is no effect of amount of feedstock in fact. Corn stover was treated under HTL condition with water. The collected mixture was separated into individual fractions. Measurements of weight, TOC/TN, CHNS, and ash content were performed. This approach also predicted H/O atomic ratio of SR and H/C atomic ratio HBO of the fuel characteristics. In addition, by varying solid loading, power functions were found between weights of CS and SR even in the same temp. and time condition, and the exponent of the function was organized with the severity index.
Keywords
Biocrude, Hydrochar, Hydrothermal liquefaction, Biofuel, Biomass, Corn stover
Prediction of Energy Density and Yield of Product Fractions from Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Corn Stover Using a Chemical Kinetic Model
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising thermochemical treatment to convert biomass into biofuel. One of the research projects which a great attention was paid to is to predict how much of hydrochar and biocrude were collected or what characteristics they have from the conditions. The researchers have been often conducting research on the prediction of yields of HTL bioproduct fractions using chemical kinetic model. The model is structured with an assuming reaction network and solves numerically the reaction rate differential equations in combination with the Arrhenius equation based on the obtained data, such as weight, temperature, and time. In most cases, all elemental reactions in the model consists of pseudo-first-order reaction and it allows us to eliminate the effect of weight of feedstock. Therefore, only temperature and time have been often regarded as variables of this prediction. The current research aimed to predict higher heating values (HHVs) and weights of bioproduct fractions, such as solid residue (SR), heavy bio-oil (HBO), and Aqueous phase (AP) solute, produced from HTL of corn stover. This research is the first research to predict not only weights but also HHVs of the fractions by adding another factor, elemental composition of the feedstock and fractions, to conventional factors. In this work, weight of feedstock was also varied to confirm if there is no effect of amount of feedstock in fact. Corn stover was treated under HTL condition with water. The collected mixture was separated into individual fractions. Measurements of weight, TOC/TN, CHNS, and ash content were performed. This approach also predicted H/O atomic ratio of SR and H/C atomic ratio HBO of the fuel characteristics. In addition, by varying solid loading, power functions were found between weights of CS and SR even in the same temp. and time condition, and the exponent of the function was organized with the severity index.