Engineering Commons^™

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 …

Structural Evolution Of Molybdenum Carbides In Hot Aqueous Environments And Impact On Low-Temperature Hydroprocessing Of Acetic Acid, Jae-Soon Choi, Viviane Schwartz, Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez, Mark Crocker, Samuel A. Lewis Jr., Michael J. Lance, Harry M. Meyer Iii, Karren L. More

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty and Staff Publications

We investigated the structural evolution of molybdenum carbides subjected to hot aqueous environments and their catalytic performance in low-temperature hydroprocessing of acetic acid. While bulk structures of Mo carbides were maintained after aging in hot liquid water, a portion of carbidic Mo sites were converted to oxidic sites. Water aging also induced changes to the non-carbidic carbon deposited during carbide synthesis and increased surface roughness, which in turn affected carbide pore volume and surface area. The extent of these structural changes was sensitive to the initial carbide structure and was lower under actual hydroprocessing conditions indicating the possibility of further …

Utilization Of Palm Oil Sludge Through Pyrolysis For Bio-Oil And Bio-Char Production

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

In this study, pyrolysis technique was utilized for converting palm oil sludge to value added materials: bio-oil (liquid fuel) and bio-char (soil amendment). The bio-oil yield obtained was 27.4 +/- 1.7 wt.% having a heating value of 22.2 +/- 3.7 MJ/kg and a negligible ash content of 0.23 +/- 0.01 wt.%. The pH of bio-oil was in alkaline region. The bio-char yielded 49.9 +/- 0.3 wt.%, which was further investigated for sorption efficiency by adsorbing metal (Cd2+ ions) from water. The removal efficiency of Cd2+ was 89.4 +/- 2%, which was almost similar to the removal efficiency of a commercial …

Bio-Oil And Biodiesel As Biofuels Derived From Microalgal Oil And Their Characterization By Using Instrumental Techniques, Dipesh Kumar, Bhaskar Singh, Kuldeep Bauddh, John Korstad

College of Science and Engineering Faculty Research and Scholarship

Microalgal oil has been a source for production of biofuels such as bio-oil and biodiesel. These two biofuels can be characterized quantitatively using advanced instrumentation techniques. Nile red fluorescence method, PAM fluorometry, NMR, GC/GC-MS, and FTIR are among the major techniques available for characterization and quantification of algal oil. NMR is a rapid and nondestructive analytical technique as it requires minimal sample preparation, and even one intact algal cell can be analyzed. It can also be used for continuous monitoring of cellular composition of algal culture. NMR can be used to monitor transesterification reaction and oxidation of lipids and biodiesel …

Thermo-Catalytic Upgrading Of Pyrolysis Vapors Using Electromagnetic Heating, Pranjali Devidas Muley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Electromagnetic heating offers several advantages such as rapid heating rates, accurate temperature control and energy efficiency over conventional reactors. The goal of this study was to design an effective and energy efficient catalytic reactor for pyrolysis vapor upgrading. An induction based catalytic reactor was designed for upgrading of pyrolysis vapors. The effect of catalyst bed temperatures (290°, 330° and 370°C) and biomass to catalyst ratios of 1, 1.5 and 2 was studied. The results were compared to conventional heating reactor. Induction heating reactor performance exceeded that of conventional heater. The biomass to catalyst ratio of 2 in combination with the …