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The conceptual light olefin production system from biomass via gasification and methanol synthesis was simulated and its thermodynamic performance was evaluated through exergy analysis. The system was made up of gasification, gas composition adjustment, methanol synthesis, light olefin synthesis, steam & power generation and cooling water treatment. The in-depth exergy analysis was performed at the levels of system, subsystem and operation component respectively. The gasifier and the tail gas combustor were the main sources of irreversibility with exergy destruction ratios of 17.0% and 16.8% of the input exergy of biomass. The steam & power generation subsystem accounted for 43.4% of the overall exergy destruction, followed by 41.0% and 5.69% in the subsystems of gasification and gas composition adjustment respectively. The sensitivity evaluation of the operation parameters of gasifier indicates that the system efficiency could be improved by enhancing syngas yield and subsequent yield of light olefins. The overall exergetic efficiency of 30.5% is obtained at the mass ratios of steam to biomass and O2-rich gas (95 vol%) to biomass (S/B and O/B) of 0.26 and 0.14 and gasification temperature at 725 °C.

Keto-alcohols, which are traditionally produced from fossil resources with multisteps, are considered as important intermediates for diversified high-value-added fine chemical synthesis due to thei...

Furfural (FAL), a promising renewable platform compound from biomass, can be totally hydrogenated to an industrially important platform chemical, tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFA). In this work, a ...

Herein, we reported in situ synthesis of biomass-derived Ni/C catalyst by self-reduction with pomelo peel. Compared with the conventional method, which includes carbonization, activation, impregnation and reduction, the entire preparation process was simplified to two steps, which was more straightforward. This synthesis method was green as Ni/C can be prepared without any additional chemical and the self-reduction process was realized in N2, which can avoid using H2 thus averting some problems such as storage, transportation and safety of H2. Meanwhile, the size and dispersion of Ni particles can be controlled by changing carbonization temperature. The synthesis mechanism of Ni/C catalyst with self-reduction was investigated, which was mainly attributed to the carbon and reducing gas produced during the carbonization process. For the catalytic performance of GVL synthesis, a high yield (94.5%) can be obtained and it exhibited good stability up to 5 cycles without obvious loss of catalytic activity.

Ethanol is an important bulk chemical with diverse applications. Biomass-derived ethanol is traditionally produced by fermentation. Direct cellulose conversion to ethanol by chemocatalysis is particularly promising but remains a great challenge. Herein, a one-pot hydrogenolysis of cellulose into ethanol was developed by using graphene-layers-encapsulated nickel (Ni@C) catalysts with the aid of H3 PO4 in water. The cellulose was hydrolyzed into glucose, which was activated by forming cyclic di-ester bonds between the OH groups of H3 PO4 and glucose, promoting ethanol formation under the synergistic hydrogenation of Ni@C. A 69.1 % yield of ethanol (carbon mole basis) was obtained, which is comparable to the theoretical value achieved by glucose fermentation. An ethanol concentration of up to 8.9 wt % was obtained at an increased cellulose concentration. This work demonstrates a chemocatalytic approach for the high-yield production of ethanol from renewable cellulosic biomass at high concentration.

Due to the limitations on carbon emissions, many countries are seeking potential clean, renewable and sustainable energy and fuels. Conversion of lignocellulose biomass to liquid fuel is one of the research hotpots because biomass is a renewable and sustainable resource. This paper outlines an attractive strategy for the production of liquid transport fuels from lignocellulose biomass. Specifically, hemicellulose and cellulose are converted to C5 and C6 alkanes (bio-gasoline) and C8–C15 alkanes (aviation fuel) via C5/C6 platform molecules, and lignin is converted to arenes and cyclanes via phenolic monomers and dimers through hydrodeoxygenation. The focus is to review the state-of-the-art technologies for the preparation of platform molecules, the synthesis of light/heavy alkanes, lignin depolymerization and catalytic hydrodeoxygenation. In addition, major challenges and promising prospects are also pointed out for the future development of the conversion of lignocellulose biomass to liquid transport fuels.

Conference Name:3rd International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE). Conference Address: Perugia, ITALY. Time:MAY 16-18, 2011.

An Aerodyne quadrupole aerosol mass spectrometry (Q-AMS) was utilized to measure the size-resolved chemical composition of non-refractory submicron particles (NR-PM 1 ) from October 27 to December 3, 2014 at an urban site in Lanzhou, northwest China. The average NR-PM 1 mass concentration was 37.3 μg m −3 (ranging from 2.9 to 128.2 μg m −3 ) under an AMS collection efficiency of unity and was composed of organics (48.4%), sulfate (17.8%), nitrate (14.6%), ammonium (13.7%), and chloride (5.7%). Positive matrix factorization (PMF) with the multi-linear engine (ME-2) solver identified six organic aerosol (OA) factors, including hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA), coal combustion OA (CCOA), cooking-related OA (COA), biomass burning OA (BBOA) and two oxygenated OA (OOA1 and OOA2), which accounted for 8.5%, 20.2%, 18.6%, 12.4%, 17.8% and 22.5% of the total organics mass on average, respectively. Primary emissions were the major sources of fine particulate matter (PM) and played an important role in causing high chemically resolved PM pollution during wintertime in Lanzhou. Back trajectory analysis indicated that the long-range regional transport air mass from the westerly was the key factor that led to severe submicron aerosol pollution during wintertime in Lanzhou.

Biomass, a renewable, sustainable and carbon dioxide neutral resource, has received widespread attention in the energy market as an alternative to fossil fuels. Thermal-chemical conversion of biomass to produce biofuels is a promising technology with many commercial applications. This paper reviewed the state-of-the-art research and development of thermal-chemical conversion of biomass in China with a special focus on gasification, pyrolysis, and catalytic transformation technologies. The advantages and disadvantages, potential of future applications, and challenges related to these technologies are discussed. Conclusively, these transformation technologies for the second-generation biofuels with using non-edible lignocellulosic biomass as feedstocks show prosperous perspective for commercial applications in near future.

A pilot-scale biomass-gasification-reforming system (feedstock of 150−300 kg/h, on a dry basis) was established to produce synthesis gas for liquid fuel synthesis. The design and operation of this system were preliminarily discussed. Reforming of biomass raw fuel gas over NiO−MgO/γ-Al2O3/cordierite monolithic catalysts was investigated in a multi-tube reformer. The anti-coking and anti-sintering properties of NiO−MgO/γ-Al2O3/cordierite monolithic catalysts were characterized. The results showed that the NiO−MgO/γ-Al2O3/cordierite monolithic catalyst with a pore channel size of 7 × 7 mm could continuously deal with biomass raw fuel gas containing large amounts of fly ash. No channel blocking was observed for a long time running. The pressure drop of the reformer was only below 700 Pa even under the conditions of fuel gas velocity of 1.4 m/s and fly ash content of 330 g N−1 m−3 in the raw fuel gas. The synthesis gas [H2 + CO > 60 vol %, H2/CO ratio = 0.9−1.0, and lower heating value (LHV) > 10 MJ N−1 m−3] c...