Thermoliquefaction of palm oil fiber (Elaeis sp.) using supercritical ethanol

Abstract

Thermoliquefaction of palm oil fiber was investigated using supercritical ethanol as solvent. A semi-continuous laboratory scale unit was developed to investigate the effects of temperature (300-500°C), heating rate (10-30°C.min) and cracking time (10-30min) on the conversion of biomass in bio-oil. The main advantage of the proposed process is that a pure solvent is pumping through the reactor that contains the biomass, dispensing the use of biomass slurries. The yield of bio-oil ranged from 56% to 84%, depending on the experimental conditions. It was observed that an increase in working temperature led to an increase in the bio-oil production. Cracking time and heating rate variation had not shown a considerable effect on the conversion of biomass. The chemical profiles of bio-oil determined by GC/MS, indicate that at low temperature mainly sugar derivatives are produced, while at higher temperatures alcohols and phenolic are the majority compounds of the bio-oil.

Thermal Treatment of Biomass: A Bibliometric Analysis—The Torrefaction Case

“…[185] -Boosting carbon efficiency of the biomass to liquid process with hydrogen from power [186] -Influence of structural modification on VOC emission kinetics from stored carbonized refuse-derived fuel [187] -Process simulation of an integrated biomass torrefaction and pelletization (iBTP) [188] -Evaluating integration of biomass gasification process with solid oxide fuel cell and torrefaction process [189] -Improving carbon efficiency and profitability of the biomass to liquid process with hydrogen from renewable power [190] -Integrated systems analysis of electricity, heat, road transport, aviation, and chemicals: a case study for the Netherlands [191] -International vs. domestic bioenergy supply chains for co-firing plants: The role of pre-treatment technologies [192] -Use of biomass in integrated steelmaking-Status quo, future needs and comparison to other low-CO 2 steel production technologies [193] -climate impact and energy efficiency of internationally traded non-torrefied and torrefied wood pellets from logging residues [194] -Coupling of an acoustic emissions system to a laboratory torrefaction reactor [195] -Technical assessment of the Biomass Integrated Gasification/Gas Turbine Combined Cycle incorporation in the sugarcane industry [196] -An LCA-based evaluation of biomass to transportation fuel production and utilization pathways in a large port's context [197] -The role of bioenergy and biochemicals in CO 2 mitigation through the energy system-a scenario analysis for the Netherlands [198] -a whole-systems analysis of the value chain associated with cultivation, harvesting, transport and conversion in dedicated biomass power stations [199] -Economic impact of combined torrefaction and pelletization processes on forestry biomass supply [200] -thermoliquefaction of palm oil fiber using supercritical ethanol. [201] -The climate contribution of biomass co-combustion in a coal-fired power plant [202] -the influence of pre-treatment of biomass on products distribution and characteristics of torrefaction products [203] -Influence of mill type on densified biomass comminution.…”

THE USE OF COMPRESSED FLUIDS TO OBTAIN BIOCOMPOSITES FROM PALM OIL FIBER (Elaeis sp.)

“…For the EFBF fragmentation process, a semi-continuous biomass thermoconversion unit ( Figure 1) was employed. The main difference of this apparatus to that described previously (Oliveira et al, 2017) is the possibility of operation with pressurized liquid and gas solvents simultaneously employing a HPLC pump (Fischer Scientific, Series III) and a syringe pump (Isco, model 260D) connected with a thermostatic bath kept at 7 ºC to maintain the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in the liquid state at 100 bar, allowing one to calculate the solvent density (0.9374 g.cm -3 -NIST, 2017). These pumps move the liquid and gaseous solvent, respectively, in the whole system line.…”

“…However, most technologies (acid, alkaline or enzymatic hydrolysis) demand a significant quantity of chemical products and catalysts, as highlighted by Lachos-Perez et al (2016). As an alternative to these processes, pressurized fluids such as sub/ supercritical water and mixtures of water with ethanol or carbon dioxide (green solvents) have been applied in different biomass conversion processes, obtaining high recovery levels of different bioproducts (Oliveira et al, 2017;Lachos-Perez et al, 2016;Saldaña and Valdivieso-Ramírez, 2015;Relvas et al, 2015;Alvarez et al, 2014).…”

“…Continuous or semi-continuous processes have been reported in the literature as an alternative to batch ones for obtaining products of interest from biomass, for example, bio-oil (Oliveira et al, 2017), sugars (Lachos-Perez et al, 2016) and phytochemicals such as phenolics and antioxidant (Alvarez et al, 2014). The main advantage of these processes is the possibility to control independently all the process variables.…”

“…The main advantage of these processes is the possibility to control independently all the process variables. Recently our group proposed a semi-continuous unit for biomass liquefaction that, different from the other processes for hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), dispenses the use of biomass slurries, since a pure or a mixture of solvents is pumped through a reactor that contains the biomass (Oliveira et al, 2017). A similar apparatus for subcritical water hydrolysis (SWH) was also described by Lachos-Perez et al (2016).…”