Abstract
The effect of hydrothermal carbonization on the properties of cellulose present in lignocellulosic biomass was investigated for converting it into a renewable energy resource with high energy recovery efficiency. The biochar obtained from cellulose subjected to hydrothermal carbonization showed a significant increase in its carbon content and a calorific value. 13C NMR spectroscopy showed that when raw cellulose was subjected to hydrothermal carbonization above 220 °C, the resulting biochar had more aromatic and aliphatic fractions than those in raw cellulose. The resulting composition of the biochars was comparable to that of solid fuels and was between that of lignite and sub-bituminous coal. Therefore, cellulose, the main component of lignocellulosic biomass, was used to investigate the effects of varying the reaction temperature during hydrothermal carbonization. The energy recovery efficiency calculations showed that the optimum reaction temperature for the transformation of a mixture of cellulose was approximately 220 °C.
Highlights
Biofuel obtained from lignocellulosic biomass, which is an abundant organic material, has an enormous potential as a feedstock for the production of renewable energy that can help in solving the current global energy issues, such as depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the need to reduce CO2 emissions that adversely affect the climate [1,2,3]
The fixed carbon content of cellulose increased from 6.1% to 35.0% in response to Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) at 220 ̋C (Figure 1)
As the fixed carbon content increased during HTC, the calorific value of cellulose increased from 16.5 to 18.9, 23.1, 26.5 and 27.7 MJ/kg at 180, 200, 220 and 280 ̋C, respectively
Summary
Biofuel obtained from lignocellulosic biomass, which is an abundant organic material, has an enormous potential as a feedstock for the production of renewable energy that can help in solving the current global energy issues, such as depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the need to reduce CO2 emissions that adversely affect the climate [1,2,3]. The hydrothermal treatment process for the conversion of biomass is being investigated mainly for producing liquid (bio-oil), solid (biochar), and/or gaseous (mainly carbon dioxide) fuels [10,11,12,13,14,15]. This process has generated widespread interest in recent years. The goal of this research is to improve the fuel properties of the cellulose of lignocellulosic biomass by disrupting the structure of this uniform compound by HTC reactions. The chemical and structural characteristics of the hydrothermally-carbonized products that depend on the reaction temperatures were investigated for applying lignocellulosic biomass as a viable energy source
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