Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and supercritical water gasification (SCWG), two effective thermochemical approaches converting biomass into biofuels, have received increasing attention due to their advantages in fast reaction rate, using wet...

Growing common duckweed Lemna minor L. in diluted livestock wastewater is an alternative option for pollutants removal and consequently the accumulated duckweed biomass can be used for bioenergy production. However, the biomass accumulation can be inhibited by high level of ammonium (NH4 (+)) in non-diluted livestock wastewater and the mechanism of ammonium inhibition is not fully understood. In this study, the effect of high concentration of NH4 (+) on L. minor biomass accumulation was investigated using NH4 (+) as sole source of nitrogen (N). NH4 (+)-induced toxicity symptoms were observed when L. minor was exposed to high concentrations of ammonium nitrogen (NH4 (+)-N) after a 7-day cultivation. L. minor exposed to the NH4 (+)-N concentration of 840 mg l(-1) exhibited reduced relative growth rate, contents of carbon (C) and photosynthetic pigments, and C/N ratio. Ammonium irons were inhibitory to the synthesis of photosynthetic pigments and caused C/N imbalance in L. minor. These symptoms could further cause premature senescence of the fronds, and restrain their reproduction, growth and biomass accumulation. L. minor could grow at NH4 (+)-N concentrations of 7-84 mg l(-1) and the optimal NH4 (+)-N concentration was 28 mg l(-1).

This work reports an experimental study on supercritical water oxidation of quinoline. Moderate preheat temperature (420 • C-510 • C) and initial concentration (1wt%-10wt%) are selected to address the possibility of utilizing the heat released during the reaction, in order to realize high conversion rate at relatively low preheat temperature. The effects of temperature, residence time, oxidation ratio, pressure and concentration are analyzed. The results show that considerable conversion can happen at relatively low preheat temperature, while increase in temperature will significantly promote the complete conversion. The yield of carbon dioxide increases with the residence time but there is an upper limit due to the stronger dependence on oxidizer concentration, for which an estimated reaction order is 1.90. When the quinoline concentration is larger than 8wt%, clear exothermic peaks with temperature rise about 100 • C are detected. These exothermic peaks can be interpreted as a sign of ignition interrupted by the heat loss to the surrounding salt bath. An analogy is made between the start temperatures of these exothermic peaks and the ignition temperatures reported in methanol and isopropanol hydrothermal flame research. We conclude that quinoline solutions can be ignited without co-fuels, at comparable ignition temperature as methanol and isopropanol around 450 • C.