Conversion of Wood Waste into Solid Biofuel Using Catalytic HTC Process

Abstract

The objective of this work is to produce solid biofuel from sawdust using the HTC (Hydrothermal carbonization) process. The HTC process of feedstock involves the raw material coming into contact with high temperature and pressurized water. The HTC process could produce gaseous, liquefied and solid products, but this study focused on solid product only as an alternative to coal. In this study, sawdust used for a feedstock and its moisture content was under 5%. Water was added with the feedstock to raise moisture content to 80% and also used catalysts. The HTC process was performed at temperature range from 200 to 270℃ and reaction time was 15 to 120 min. Rising temperature resulted in increasing the higher heating value (HHV) of HTC product. In case of adding catalyst, HHV of solid biofuel was higher and reaction occurred at lower temperature and pressure. Also, HTC solid product had been characterized and found to be hydrophobic, increased HHV (over 40%), and pelletized easily compared to raw material.

Experimental Study on Hydrothermal Polymerization Catalytic Process Effect of Various Biomass through a Pilot Plant

“…Their so-called hydrothermal polymerization (HTP) process attained a high energy density of 27 MJ/kg and a mass yield rate of 60%. By using catalysts, the process temperature was lowered by 10 to 40 • C, the pressure requirement was reduced by 1 to 2 MPa, the rate of yield was 22% higher, and the total processing time was shortened by 3 h. These facts tell us the HTP process can use milder and quicker operation conditions with higher energy value and yield rate comparing with other catalytic and non-catalytic HTC reactions for wood biomass [7,[12][13][14].…”