Biochar
was produced from cellulose by hydrothermal carbonization
at 220 and 300 °C. The produced biochars were subjected to dissolution
in hydrogen donor solvent (tetralin) at 400 °C for 1 h. To understand
the kinetics of biochar dissolution, various experiments were carried
out at various temperatures of the heating stage and at different
times during the isothermal stage (at 400 °C). It was observed
that most of the conversion of biochar occurred during the heating
stage of the dissolution reaction (200–400 °C), and there
was no significant change in conversion during the isothermal stage
(400 °C). It was concluded that the dissolution of biochar prepared
at 220 °C consisted of two different steps in the heating stage
based on its conversion to products where first the unconverted cellulose
(present in the biochar) decomposed at a lower temperature (200–325
°C) to form products followed by the decomposition of biochar
(325–400 °C). However, for the dissolution of biochar
prepared at 300 °C, only one step (biochar decomposition) in
the heating stage was observed above 300 °C (300–400 °C)
to form products due to the absence of unconverted cellulose and its
higher C/O ratio. A temperature-dependent two-step kinetic model was
proposed where the pre-exponential factor and activation energies
were determined by nonlinear regression of the experimental data.