1. Thermo-catalytic reforming of alberta-based biomass feedstock to produce biofuels.
- Author
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Gill, Manjot, Kurian, Vinoj, Kumar, Amit, Stenzel, Fabian, Hornung, Andreas, and Gupta, Rajender
- Subjects
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BIOMASS energy , *FOSSIL fuels , *BIOMASS , *BIOCHAR , *FEEDSTOCK , *BIOMASS production - Abstract
The depletion of fossil fuels as well as the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use have led to growing interest in biofuel production from biomass. A new technology, thermo-catalytic reforming (TCR), is one of the contributing interests. TCR technology integrates intermediate pyrolysis with a post-reforming stage to convert biomass into a high-quality bio-oil, biochar, and syngas. In this study, experiments were carried out using three Alberta-based biomass feedstocks – hardwood pellets, softwood pellets, and chips – in a 2 kg h−1 laboratory-scale TCR plant. The results show that the composition of the biomass has little effect on product yield and quality. The TCR gases had a higher heating value of 12.5–12.8 MJ kg−1 and a hydrogen content of 13–15 vol %. The produced TCR bio-oil had low water content (~5 wt %) and a heating value of 32–34 MJ kg−1. The high quality of the bio-oil is reflected in the low O/C ratio of 0.15 and TAN of 6–15 mg KOH g−1. The TCR biochar from all three feedstocks had a high heating value and a high carbon content, as well as low O/C and H/C ratios. A parametric study was conducted for the softwood pellets to observe the effect of reformer temperature (500–700 °C) and reactor temperature (400–550 °C). It was observed that at a reformer temperature of 700 °C, the gas yield increases at the expense of a reduction in bio-oil and biochar. The optimum reactor temperature for the TCR of softwood pellets was found to be 500 °C, in terms of both bio-oil quality and yield. • Thermo-catalytic reforming (TCR) technology incorporates intermediate pyrolysis with high temperature reforming. • The TCR bio-oil had low TAN (6–15 mg KOH/g), and high HHV (32–34 MJ kg−1). • The TCR gases had a hydrogen content of 13–15 vol % and HHV of 12–14 MJ kg−1. • Higher reforming temperature led to increase in gases at the expense of bio-oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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