Biomass Carbonization - An Experimental Comparison between Pyrolysis and Hydrothermal Carbonization

Publication date: Available online 14 March 2019Source: Journal of Analytical and Applied PyrolysisAuthor(s): Catalina Rodriguez Correa, Tobias Hehr, Yannik Rauscher, Muhammad Jamal Alhnidi, Andrea KruseAbstractCarbonization technologies such as hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and pyrolysis have become an important instrument to convert biomass into products with a high-added value. In each carbonization process, biomass is decomposed but the process conditions and reaction mechanisms are considerably different. Consequently, the products have also different properties. In addition to the process conditions, the biomass composition plays an important role in determining the product characteristics. The aims of this work are to investigate the biomass decomposition during HTC and pyrolysis and to understand the effect of the biomass components on the char properties. To achieve this, three biomasses (wheat straw, pine bark and the macauba nut shell) were chosen based on their different structures regarding organic and inorganic components. The biomasses were leached with acetic acid to analyze in more detail the role of the inorganics. Furthermore, synthetic biomasses were prepared to mimic the composition of the original biomasses (physical mixtures of pure cellulose, xylan, and lignin) for comparison purposes and to study the effects of the natural, complex structure of biomass. The chars obtained after HTC and pyrolysis were analyzed in terms of yield, chemical composition...
Source: Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research