Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Literature Survey Of Wet-Waste And Hydrothermal Carbonization System: A Comparative Evaluation, Ramat Olaide Yusuf

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis describes the process of Hydrothermal carbonization and a comparative assessment on recent work done on the process using different feedstocks such as Raw Apple (RA), Apple chip pomace (ACP), apple juice pomace (AJP), grape pomace (GP), macadamia nut-shell (MNS), Sewage Sludge (SS), Poultry Litter (PL) and Grape Marc (GM). The data obtained from the literature survey was compared with the data obtained by the CCL team on the SWPS gasifier (HTC of poultry litter) to obtain how carbon conversion efficiency, syngas composition, thermal efficiency, char production rate, gas production rate and energy utilization vary with carbonization process conditions, …

Pyrolysis Kinetics Of Live And Dead Wildland Vegetation From The Southern United States, Elham Amini, Mohammad-Saeed Safdari, David R. Weise, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

The fundamental combustion behavior of live wildland vegetation is not fully understood. Since the combustion process during wildland fire starts with pyrolysis, there is a need for better understanding of pyrolysis to develop improved wildland fire models. The kinetics of pyrolysis of live and dead wildland vegetation has not been explored in detail. In this study, the pyrolysis kinetics were determined for 14 different plant species (live and dead) which are all native to the forests in the southern United States. Pyrolysis experiments were carried out in a Thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) under inert conditions at 5 different heating rates ranged …

Heating Rate And Temperature Effects On Pyrolysis Products From Live Wildland Fuels, Mohammad-Saeed Safdari, Elham Amini, David R. Weise, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

Wildland fire, which includes both planned (prescribed fire) and unplanned (wildfire) fires, is an important component of many ecosystems. During wildland fires, low heating rate pyrolysis (slow pyrolysis) occurs during preheating and/or smoldering of plant material. High heating rate pyrolysis (fast pyrolysis) exists in the flame region. Pyrolysis temperature and heating rate play important roles on the yields and the compositions of pyrolysis products. In this work, the effects of pyrolysis temperature and heating rate on the yields and the compositions of pyrolysis products from 14 plant species native to the forests of the southern United States are shown. The …

Characterization Of Pyrolysis Products From Fast Pyrolysis Of Live And Dead Vegetation, Mohammad Saeed Safdari

Theses and Dissertations

Wildland fire, which includes both planned (prescribed fire) and unplanned (wildfire) fires, is an important component of many ecosystems. Prescribed burning (controlled burning) is used as an effective tool in managing a variety of ecosystems in the United States to reduce accumulation of hazardous fuels, manage wildlife habitats, mimic natural fire occurrence, manage traditional native foods, and provide other ecological and societal benefits. During wildland fires, both live and dead (biomass) plants undergo a two-step thermal degradation process (pyrolysis and combustion) when exposed to high temperatures. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of organic material, which does not require the presence …

Modeling Soot Formation Derived From Solid Fuels, Alexander Jon Josephson

Theses and Dissertations

Soot formation from complex solid fuels, such as coal or biomass, is an under-studied and little understood phenomena which has profound physical effects. Any time a solid fuel is combusted, from coal-burning power plants to wildland fires, soot formation within the flame can have a significant influence on combustion characteristics such as temperature, heat flux, and chemical profiles. If emitted from the flame, soot particles have long-last effects on human health and the environment. The work in this dissertation focuses on creating and implementing computational models to be used for predicting soot mechanisms in a combustion environment. Three models are …

Analysis Of Particle Behavior Inside The Classifier Of A Raymond Bowl Mill While Co-Milling Woody Biomass With Coal, Seyedhassan Fakourian, Andrew R. Fry, Tanner Jasperson

Faculty Publications

Woody biomass cofiring with coal at existing pulverized-coal boilers is known to be a green energy source and is a low-expense alternative for pure coal combustion. Co-milling woody biomass particles (15 wt%) with coal particles (85 wt%) before burning at a boiler is a complex problem because large woody biomass particles (>300 μm) exit the milling system along with the fine particles. A Computational Particle Fluid Dynamics (CPFD) is used in this paper to present a novel analysis about the behavior of woody biomass particles as they are mixed with coal particles inside the classifier. To meet this …

Thermochemical Conversion Of Biomass: Detailed Gasification And Near-Burner Co-Firing Measurements, Jacob B. Beutler

Theses and Dissertations

An increasing emphasis on mitigating global climate change (global warming) over the last few decades has created interest in a broad range of sustainable or alternative energy systems to replace fossil fuel combustion. Biomass, when harvested responsibly, is a renewable fuel with many uses in replacing fossil fuels. Cofiring biomass with coal in traditional large-scale coal power plants represents one of the lowest risk, least costly, near-term methods of CO₂ mitigation. Simultaneously, it is one of the most efficient and inexpensive uses of biomass. Alternatively, biomass can be transformed into useful products through gasification to produce clean syngas for …

Lignin Conversion To Value-Added Products Via Heterogeneous Catalysts, Yu Gao

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Increasing world population has led to great demands for fuels, chemicals, and materials, and has raised concerns over the depletion of non-renewable resources and the environmental impacts of their processing and utilization. However, the biorefinery concept suggests lignocellulosic biomass can be used as an alternative resource for producing a range of fuels, chemicals and materials to fulfill these demands in a sustainable way. Hence, fermentation technologies are widely developed to efficiently utilize lignocellulosic carbohydrates. However, the non-carbohydrate fraction of biomass, lignin, is still considered as waste and is under-utilized as low-grade fuel, mainly for local heat and electricity production. Since …

Modeling Soot Formation From Solid Complex Fuels, Alexander J. Josephson, Rod R. Linn, David O. Lignell

Faculty Publications

A detailed model is proposed for predicting soot formation from complex solid fuels. The proposed model resolves two particle size distributions, one for soot precursors and another for soot particles. The precursor size distribution is represented with a sectional approach while the soot particle-size distribution is represented with the method of moments and an interpolative closure method is used to resolve fractional methods. Based on established mechanisms, this model includes submodels for precursor coagulation, growth, and consumption, as well as soot nucleation, surface growth, agglomeration, and consumption. The model is validated with comparisons to experimental data for two …

Characterization Of Pyrolysis Products From Fast Pyrolysis Of Live And Dead Vegetation Native To The Southern United States, Mohammad-Saeed Safdari, Mahmood Rahmati, Elham Amini, Joel E. Howarth, Jansen P. Berryhill, Mark Dietenberger, David R. Weise, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

Prescribed burning (controlled burning) is used to decrease accumulation of combustible materials and reduce impact of uncontrolled wildland fires. Prescribed fires are often used to burn undergrowth in Southern forests of the United States. In order to improve prescribed fire application, accomplish desired fire effects, and limit potential runaway fires, an improved understanding of the fundamental processes related to combustion of heterogeneous fuel beds of live and dead fuels is needed. The initial processes of combustion involve pyrolysis and ignition. During this research, fast pyrolysis of 14 live and dead (biomass) plant species which are native to the Southern United …

Experimental And Numerical Investigation On Tar Production And Recycling In Fixed Bed Biomass Gasifiers, Jia Yu

Doctoral Dissertations

"Bioenergy has been utilized for domestic purposes since pre-recorded history and it catches the highlight in the recent decades because it naturally benefits the world climate and energy security. Gasification is one of the key technologies to efficiently and economically convert biomass into syngas and further into biofuels. Despite these outstanding advantages, biomass gasification suffers from the formation of unfavorable byproduct tar and the consequential tar elimination. Moreover, the collected tar is toxic and thus requires storage and strict deposit method to avoid environmental pollution.

To understand the mechanisms of biomass gasification and tar production, simulations with Aspen Plus were …

Experimental Study Of The Chimney Height Variation Against Double Pots Biomass Stove Performance, Faisal Faisal, Adi Setiawan, Wusnah Wusnah, Khairil Khairil, Luthfi Luthfi, Mona Fajriana

Makara Journal of Technology

This research aims to get optimal chimneys height of double pots biomass stove. Optimal chimneys height needs to provide best performance of the stove. Experimental study was done by varied the chimney heights. Water boiling test as the standard method was used to obtained stove performance for each chimney height variation. The results showed that best performance stove was the one with 1.65 cm chimney height, with thermal efficiency at 37.66%.

Co-Gasification Of Coal And Biomass Wastes In An Entrained Flow Gasifier: Modelling, Simulation And Integration Opportunities, Dalia A. Ali Eng, Mamdouh A. Gadalla Prof., Omar Y. Abdelaziz, Christian P. Hulteberg, Fatma H. Ashour Prof.

Chemical Engineering

Gasification processes convert carbon-containing material into syngas through chemical reactions in the presence of gasifying agents such as air, oxygen, and steam. Syngas mixtures produced from such processes consist mainly of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4); this gas can be directly utilised as a fuel to produce electricity or steam. Besides, it is regarded as a basic feedstock within the petrochemical and conventional refining industries, producing various useful products like methanol, hydrogen, ammonia, and acetic acid. In this work, a rigorous process model is developed to simulate the co-gasification of coal-biomass blends through an …

Designing And Development Of A Photobioreactor For Optimizing The Growth Of Micro Algae And Studying Its Growth Parameters, Sarmila Katuwal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the estimated value of materials required to grow 1g of biomass and the analysis of the light intensity with respect to flow path and flow rate. This thesis aims to design the sparger for a flat plate Photobioreactor, study the flow patterns at different flow rate of air flow and check the performance of flat plate PBR by growing the cyanobacteria. The estimated value to produce 1g of biomass (C_44.6H₇O₂₅N_7.68P_0.9S_0.3) was 0.099g of N, 0.493g of C, 0.160 g of Na, 0.026 g of P, …

Heat Transfer Analysis In A Paddle Reactor For Biomass Fast Pyrolyis, Ankith Ullal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Heat transfer analysis was performed on a novel auger reactor for biomass fast pyrolysis. As part of this analysis, correlations for specific heat capacity and heat transfer coefficients for biomass (sawdust) and sand (used as heat transfer medium) were developed. For sand, the heat transfer coefficient followed a power law distribution with reactor fill level and temperature. For raw biomass, the heat transfer coefficient also showed similar dependence on fill level, but was independent of temperature up to 300°C. These correlations were used in a one dimensional heat transfer model developed to calculate the heating time and heating rate of …

Understanding Glycoside Hydrolase Processivity For Improved Biomass Conversion, Suvamay Jana

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

In nature, organisms secrete synergistic enzyme cocktails to deconstruct crystalline polysaccharides, such as cellulose and chitin, to soluble sugars. The cocktails consist of multiple classes of processive and non-processive glycoside hydrolases (GH) that aid in substrate accessibility and reduce product inhibition. Processive GHs attach to chain ends and hydrolyze many glycosidic linkages in sequence to produce disaccharide units before dissociation, and as such, are responsible for the majority of hydrolytic bond cleavages. Accordingly, processive GHs are targets for activity improvements towards efficient and economical biomass conversion. However, the mechanism and factors responsible for processivity are still not understood completely at …

Use Of Green Mussel Shell As A Desulfurizer In The Blending Of Low Rank Coal-Biomass Briquette Combustion, Mahidin Mahidin, Asri Gani, M. Reza Hani, Muhammad Syukur, Hamdani Hamdani, Khairil Khairil, Samsul Rizal, Abdul Hadi, T.M.I. Mahlia

Makara Journal of Technology

Calcium oxide-based material is available abundantly and naturally. A potential resource of that material comes from marine mollusk shell such as clams, scallops, mussels, oysters, winkles and nerites. The CaO-based material has exhibited a good performance as the desulfurizer or adsorbent in coal combustion in order to reduce SO2 emission. In this study, pulverized green mussel shell, without calcination, was utilized as the desulfurizer in the briquette produced from a mixture of low rank coal and palm kernel shell (PKS), also known as bio-briquette. The ratio of coal to PKS in the briquette was 90:10 (wt/wt). The influence of green …

Enzymatic Liquefaction Of Untreated Corn Stover, Neal N. Hengge

Open Access Theses

There is an ever increasing need for renewable alternatives to fossil fuels derived from petroleum. This makes feedstocks in the form of lignocellulosic biomass attractive substrates for the production of ethanol and value added chemicals. However, the economics of converting lignocellulosic materials involve high processing costs attributed with pretreatment of the biomass and the use of enzymes for saccharification. Corn stover was obtained for the examination of an upstream processing step to transform the material into a pumpable slurry for subsequent pretreatment and saccharification. Biomass liquefaction was carried out using the enzyme Depol 692L (Biocatalysts, Wales, UK) at 50°C with …

Development Of A Mobile 100 Kg/H Plant For Pyrolysis Using A Mechanically Fluidized Reactor, Dhiraj Kankariya, Stefano Tacchino, Dominic Pjontek, Franco Berruti, Cedric Briens

5th International Congress on Green Process Engineering (GPE 2016)

Current pyrolysis processes perform the thermal decomposition of biomass into a liquid bio-oil, bio-char and non-condensable gases, at around 500 °C, without the addition of oxygen gas. The bio-oil is a complex mixture of many components that is used either as a substitute for fuel oil or for applications such as liquid smoke and bio-phenol resins that do not require pure chemicals.

The large-scale mechanical fluidized reactor (MFR) is a new technology for the pyrolysis of biomass developed by ICFAR, which does not require a sand bed and, thus, provides an undiluted solid char residue, which is essential to realize …

Integrating Batch Pyrolysis And Fractional Condensation (2d Mfr) To Get High-Value Products From Biomass, Mohammad Hossain, Chiara Barbiero, Ian Scott, Franco Berruti, Cedric Briens

5th International Congress on Green Process Engineering (GPE 2016)

Agricultural crop residues are a source of inexpensive biomass to convert into bioproducts. The recovery of valuable chemicals from plant waste would partly solve the disposal issue and offer a more environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic chemical production. One approach to separate and concentrate valuable chemicals from biomass is pyrolysis using a batch reactor process. A mechanically fluidized reactor (MFR) was developed to pyrolyze biomass from ambient to temperatures near 600 °C, forming gases that are then condensed in an ice-chilled condenser to form a bio-oil. The bio-oil produced by the MFR can be separated within temperature ranges, termed one-dimensional …

Catalytic Property Of Olivine For Bio-Oil Gasification, Mohammad Latifi, Franco Berruti, Cedric Briens

5th International Congress on Green Process Engineering (GPE 2016)

Introduction

Biomass is an attractive renewable source of fuel and energy. Thermochemical processes can convert biomass to a liquid bio-oil or to a syngas. The advantage of using bio-oil as an intermediate is that, in contrast with both raw biomass and gas, it can easily be produced in small distributed units, stored and transported. Not only can platform chemicals and clean fuels be produced from syngas, but hydrogen is itself an alternative fuel. A high hydrogen production is usually desired: for example, methanol production requires a syngas with a molar H₂/CO ratio of 2. Therefore, maximum hydrogen production …

Adhesives From Biomass Pyrolysis, Dongbing Li, Franco Berruti, Cedric Briens

5th International Congress on Green Process Engineering (GPE 2016)

Fast pyrolysis of waste biomass with high lignin content, such as birch wood, birch bark, hydrolysis lignin, kraft lignin or low-cost digestate from biogas production, provides oils that can be substituted for phenol in phenol-formaldehyde resins. Biomass fast pyrolysis was performed in a dedicated fluidized bed pyrolyzer that incorporated two crucial innovations: a fractional condensation train provided dry bio-oils with ~1% of moisture and much reduced acidity; autothermal pyrolysis with partial oxidation reduces operating and capital costs, as well as increasing the quality of the dry bio-oil. Dry bio-oil obtained from autothermal fast pyrolysis of kraft lignin can be used …

Fundamental Study And Applications To Biomass Pyrolysis Of The Mechanically Fluidized Reactor, Valentina Lago, Franco Berruti, Cedric Briens

5th International Congress on Green Process Engineering (GPE 2016)

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

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Using The Jiggled Bed Reactor To Develop Activated Carbons From Biomass Residues, Anastasia Colomba, Franco Berruti, Cedric Briens

5th International Congress on Green Process Engineering (GPE 2016)

Activated carbons are the most used adsorbent material. Their applications range from wastewater treatment, air purification, removal of contaminants and many others. According to “Global Activated Carbon Market Forecast & Opportunities 2017”, the demand for activated carbon is expected to increase more than 10% per year for the next 5 years to make it a $3 billion market by 2017. Current processes for the production of activated carbons from renewable resources do not provide valuable co-products. This presentation focuses on the conversion to activated carbon of the bio-char co-product of the pyrolysis process. Pyrolysis also provides valuable bio-oil, which is …

Hydrodynamic Study Of A Circulating Fluidized Bed Used For Biomass Gasification Between 20 °C And 900 °C, Sébastien Pecate, Mehrdji Hemati, Mathieu Morin, Yilmaz Kara, Sylvie Valin

Fluidization XV

This work, carried out in the GAYA project frame and subsidized by ADEME, concerns the hydrodynamic study of a 60 kWth circulating fluidized bed pilot plant constructed at the Laboratoire de Génie Chimique in Toulouse for biomass gasification. In that process, biomass gasification and heating of fluidisation material (sand, olivine, catalyst…) which also acts as heat transfer medium, are performed in two separate reactors: a dense fluidized bed and a transported bed. Thermal energy, required in order to heat the fluidisation material, is supplied by the partial combustion of the char produced in the gasification reactor. The hydrodynamic study carried …

Experimental And Theoretical Investigation Of Sustainable Fast Pyrolysis Biofuels From Woody Biomass, Bethany Jean Klemetsrud

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Biofuels are an important advancement in alternative energy that can provide substantial environmental benefits compared to their conventional fossil fuel counterparts Said benefits are usually measured using life cycle assessments. However, it is not well understood yet how different methodological choices such as system boundaries, biomass feedstocks, conversion pathways, geographical data, etc. affect the conclusions drawn from biofuels LCA. This research shows large variability in life cycle assessment results and limits comparison across different biofuel pathways due to methodological choices set forth by policy and certification schemes. Advanced biofuels have not reached large scale production due to a limited understanding …

Rational Synthesis To Optimize Ruthenium-Based Biomass Conversion Catalysts, Shuo Cao

Theses and Dissertations

With worldwide petroleum resources dwindling and greenhouse gas emissions rising, it is urgent to find renewable replacements for petroleum-derived products. A biomass-derived chemical with high potential as a platform intermediate, γ-valerolactone (GVL) can be readily synthesized by hydrogenation of levulinic acid (LA), itself a common biomass intermediate, using supported Ru catalysts. Overall, vapor phase hydrogenation is more energy sensitive as the higher boiling point of LA (~245°C) and requires a high energy input, comparable to liquid phase hydrogenation, which is more economical. To date the literature on many novel biomass conversion processes such as the hydrogenation of LA to GVL …

Production And Harvest Of Microalgae In Wastewater Raceways With Resource Recycling, Alexander Colin Roberts

Master's Theses

Microalgae can be grown on municipal wastewater media to both treat the wastewater and produce feedstock for algae biofuel production. However the reliability of treatment must be demonstrated, as well as high areal algae productivity on recycled wastewater media and efficient sedimentation harvesting. This processes was studied at pilot scale in the present research.

A pilot facility was operated with nine CO₂-supplemented raceway ponds, each with a 33-m² surface area and a 0.3-m depth, continuously from March 6, 2013 through September 24, 2014. The ponds were operated as three sets of triplicates with two sets continuously fed …

Targeted Products From Fast-Hydropyrolysis And Hydrodeoxygenation Of Biomass, Ian Tad Smith

Open Access Theses

Previously, the H2Bioil process was proposed as a possible way to convert sustainably available intact biomass into liquid fuels. The optimization of this process and possible synergies with other biomass conversion processes are presented in this thesis.

The selectivity of the PtMo hydrodeoxygenation catalyst was tuned using two different hydrogen partial pressures: 25 bar, and 2.5 bar. This effect was studied on cellulose and intact biomass samples to determine the effect that hydrogen has upon the retention of aromatic compounds found in intact biomass. These experiments show that it is possible for the hydrogenation activity of the PtMo catalyst to …

Effects Of Biomass Moisture Content On Volatile Flame Length During Cofiring With Coal, Matthew Pollard

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Cofiring biomass with coal can contribute to meeting Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and reduce pollutant emissions. The physical characteristics and composition of biomass can vary significantly, which can affect the combustion characteristics. When cofiring biomass with coal, these differences can impact the structure of the volatile flame, the region where combustion of volatiles dominates. The length and location of the volatile flame is important to flame stability and determines the location and extent of volatile release. This has an effect on pollutant emissions, such as NOx (nitrogen oxides). Previously, the effects of parameters such as cofiring ratio, particle size, and …