Engineering Commons^™

The Effect Of Moox Reducibility On Its Activity For Anisole Hydrodeoxygenation, Chantal Walker

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is a process for upgrading crude bio-oil as it has a high oxygen content which causes several undesirable properties. Current methods for HDO use sulfided NiMo and CoMo or supported noble metal catalysts which hydrogenate aromatic rings, leading to less valuable products and increasing the hydrogen consumption. Using 10 wt. % MoO3 supported on ZrO2, TiO2, γ-Al2O3, SiO2 and CeO2, we investigated the atmospheric HDO of anisole, a model compound, at 350 °C. All catalysts achieved C – O bond cleavage, preserving the aromatic ring. In situ UV-Vis spectroscopy showed a peak corresponding to intervalence charge transfer …

Development Of Technologies For High Value Products From Biomass Pyrolysis, Chiara Barbiero

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex. Steud. is an invasive perennial grass found in North America, which is rapidly spreading throughout Ontario, damaging the native ecosystem and endangering the wildlife. This infestation has caused a decrease in biodiversity and nutrient availability to the agricultural crops through competition. One of the most effective management practices is spading them, leaving a huge number of dead stalks that need to be disposed of. Pyrolysis was selected as an alternative thermochemical method to convert this feedstock to value-added bioproducts, such as bio-oil and biochar, and to produce valuable renewable chemicals from the pyrolysis oil, such …

Pyrolysis Of Miscanthus And Products Characterization, Arshdeep Singh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Miscanthus, an invasive crop, has recently gained attention as an emerging energy crop because of certain features such as adaptability to lower temperature, efficient use of water and nutrients, low or no need of nitrogen fertilizers, high biomass yield, fast growing cycle and less intensive agricultural cultivation practices than other energy crops, such as corn.

The literature review is focused on the value-added applications and conversion of Miscanthus for bioenergy and biomaterial applications. The thermochemical conversion technologies reviewed in this chapter include pyrolysis, liquefaction, torrefaction and gasification, whereas biochemical conversion technologies include enzymatic saccharification and fermentation.

In this work, …

Production Of Monomeric Aromatics/Phenolics From Hydrolysis Lignin (Hl) By Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis And Hydrothermal Liquefaction, Hooman Paysepar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Bio-oil, produced from bio-feedstocks by thermochemical conversion technologies (e.g., pyrolysis or direct liquefaction), can be renewable replacement for petroleum for energy and chemical production. However, bio oil has high oxygen content, low stability, and low heating value. Thus, upgrading of bio-oil is necessary to remove the oxygen and make it a suitable substitute for conventional liquid transportation fuels or for value-added bio-based chemicals. Oxygen in a bio-oil can be removed by catalytic cracking or hydro-de-oxygenation to the form of H₂O, CO and CO₂ in the presence of a catalyst.

The overall objective of this PhD project was …

Application Of Mechanically Fluidized Reactors To Lignin Pyrolysis, Valentina Lago

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Lignin has great potential for the production of aromatics currently derived from petroleum, since it is the most abundant source of aromatics in nature. At present, Kraft lignin is used as fuel within the pulping process but, alternatively, it could be converted to high-value chemicals using thermochemical processes such as pyrolysis. Kraft lignin, however, is a very cohesive and thermally sensitive powder with foaming and agglomerating tendency under reaction conditions. Therefore, new reactor designs are necessary to efficiently process this raw material.

Consequently, a novel reactor design, designated as Mechanically Fluidized Reactor (MFR) has been developed to successfully process Kraft …

Upgrading Of Fast Pyrolysis Oil Via Hdo Using Nano-Structured Catalysts, Shima Ahmadi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The effects of type of solvents (hydro-treated or upgraded pyrolysis oil and ethanol) on hydro-de-oxygenation (HDO) of fast pyrolysis oil were studied. The presence and the type of solvent were found to be effective for prevention or reduction of self-polymerization during the bio-oil HDO process. Using ethanol as the solvent had superior performance in terms of the heating value, molecular weight and elemental composition of the upgraded oil products, compared to using hydro-treated oils as the solvent. Furthermore, novel CoMo catalysts supported on nano-structured materials including MCM-41 and SBA-15 were synthesized and tested on HDO of fast pyrolysis oil in …

Development And Applications Of A Novel Intermittent Solids Feeder For Pyrolysis Reactors, Federico M. Berruti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This PhD research addresses the challenge of feeding biomass residues into fluidized bed reactors for pyrolysis, through the development of a novel intermittent solid slug feeder, both for laboratory-scale and large-scale reactors. The new feeder can successfully handle biomass residues that are either too cohesive or thermally sensitive for traditional feeders.

To optimize the novel feeder performance, a model for the pulsating solids flow was developed from experimental data collected with ideal slugs, as well as real biomass flow. The model was validated using both a laboratory-scale (< 10 kg/hr) and large-scale feeder (> 250 kg/hr). Several important variables were identified. They include the material flow …

Fractional Condensation Of Bio-Oil Vapors, Akhil Tumbalam Gooty

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The research project described in this thesis deals with an investigation on the fractional condensation of bio-oil vapors to improve the separation of some of the key components of the bio-oil and, consequently, improve the properties and the value of each of the separated product streams.

In the first part, the separation of a mixture of three model compounds of bio-oil from a vapor and carrier gas stream was investigated with the help of a series of three condensers maintained at different temperatures. The practical performance of the fractional condensation train was improved by comparing the experimental results with the …

Gasification Of Bio-Oils To Syngas In Fluidized Bed Reactors, Mohammad Latifi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Bio-fuels are renewable and clean which can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels or can be used in combination with them. Biomass is a main source of bio-fuels production: it is a renewable resource and its conversion to energy releases no net CO₂ to the environment.

Bio-oil, the valuable liquid product obtained from biomass through pyrolysis, may be either combusted to generate carbon-neutral electricity or converted to a synthesis gas from which chemicals or clean fuels can be produced. Producing bio-oil from biomass and then converting the bio-oil to syngas has several advantages: The bio-oil may be generated …