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(2016) Thermochemical and structural changes in Jatropha curcas seed cake during torrefaction for its use as coal co-firing feedstock. Energy, Access from the University of Nottingham repository: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32379/1/torrefaction%20paperfinalcombined.docx.pdf Copyright and reuse:The Nottingham ePrints service makes this work by researchers of the University of Nottingham available open access under the following conditions. This article is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives licence and may be reused according to the conditions of the licence. For more details see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. AbstractJatropha curcas seed cake is a viable feedstock for co-firing with coal as it has the advantages of being renewable, carbon-neutral and sourced from a versatile plant.Torrefaction, a mild pyrolysis treatment by heating in a N 2 atmosphere, was investigated as a technique to improve the thermochemical properties of the biomass, primarily the higher heating value (HHV). The temperature and holding time were to beyond 300°C.

(2016) Leaching as a pretreatment process to complement torrefaction in improving co-firing characteristics of Jatropha curcas seed cake. Waste and Biomass Valorization, 7 (3 A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. AbstractThe presence of certain inorganic elements in biomass causes issues such as slagging, fouling and corrosion when co-firing with coal for power generation. In this work, the efficacy of leaching to remove these elements from Jatropha curcas seed cake was investigated. Leaching of both untorrefied and torrefied seed cakes was carried out in Milli-Q water at temperatures of 20 0 C, 35 0 C and 50 0 C. At 20 0 C, the two critical elements, potassium and chlorine, decreased by as much as 85% and 97%, respectively. Leaching at higher temperatures was only beneficial for the more intensely-torrefied biomass, since they were more resistant to leaching. The electrical 24 conductivity and ion content of the leachates were measured, as were the inorganic elemental content, dry ash content, volatile matter content and higher heating value (HHV) of the solid seed cake. A secondary benefit of the leaching was an increase in the HHV by up to 10%.

Jatropha curcas seed cake is a potential candidate for co-firing with coal. Combustion modelling using Ansys Fluent 14.0 was carried out to assess the combustion and co-firing characteristics of untorrefied and torrefied Jatropha curcas seed cake. The effect of torrefaction on the devolatilisation characteristics, flame properties and consequently NOx pollutant formation was established. Compared to the torrefied biomass, the untorrefied seed cake devolatilised earlier, had a more dispersed flame and higher NO formation. The higher reactivity of the biomass was shown to have a positive effect on the devolatilisation rate of the less reactive coal under co-firing simulations.

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