Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Pinewood Sawdust: Influence of Reaction Atmosphere

Haoyu Wang, Yipei Jiang, Evan Park, Xue Han, Yimin Zeng () and Chunbao Xu ()
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Haoyu Wang: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B9, Canada
Yipei Jiang: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B9, Canada
Evan Park: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B9, Canada
Xue Han: CanmetMATERIALS, NRCan, Hamilton, ON L8P 0A5, Canada
Yimin Zeng: CanmetMATERIALS, NRCan, Hamilton, ON L8P 0A5, Canada
Chunbao Xu: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B9, Canada

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a thermochemical process for production of biocrude oils, commonly from wet biomass under inert atmosphere (N 2 ). Influence of reaction atmosphere on HTL of pinewood sawdust was investigated in this work, at 300 °C for 60 min with the presence of KOH or H 2 SO 4 catalyst under N 2 , H 2 , and O 2 atmosphere, respectively. Very interestingly, the reaction atmosphere showed significant influence on both products distribution and properties of the biocrude oils. Generally, H 2 atmosphere enhanced biomass degradation in the presence of either KOH or H 2 SO 4 catalyst, producing the highest biocrude oil yield, lowest solid residue yield, and the best oil quality in terms of total acid number (TAN), viscosity and average molecular weights (Mn, Mw). Whereas the HTL in O 2 atmosphere showed the poorest performance in terms of yields and properties of biocrude oils. The highest quality of biocrude oil was produced using KOH catalyst in H 2 atmosphere with the maximum biocrude yield (approx. 34 wt.%) and the highest energy recovery (ER) in biocrude (ER = 73.14%). The measured properties of the oil are as follows: TAN = 40.2 mg KOH/g, viscosity = 51.2 cp, Mn = 470 g/mol, Mw = 767 g/mol. In addition, the biocrude oils produced in H 2 atmosphere contain more light oil (naphtha) fraction (23.9 wt.% with KOH and 16.5 wt.% with H 2 SO 4 ) with lower boiling points, while those generated in O 2 atmosphere have more carboxylic acid compounds.

Keywords: reaction atmosphere; biocrude properties; KOH; hydrogen; H 2 SO 4; hydrothermal liquefaction; nitrogen; oxygen; pinewood sawdust; products distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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