Abstract
Thermal treatment of biomass has been attracting attention for a decade or so, especially torrefaction. However, for the past few years, wet pyrolysis, also known as hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), has been getting some attention. Hydrothermal carbonization is a thermal treatment of biomass in the presence of water in a temperature range of 180°C - 260°C. This method of treating biomass has some benefits which others do not, such as it can handle extremely wet biomass. However, treating biomass may not be enough for practical use. It may need to be transported and stored. Thus, this study explored the idea of pelletizing the HTC biomass. The mechanical strength of the HTC pellets was found to be 93%, whereas, higher heating value (HHV) (dry basis) was found to be 4% higher than the corresponding white pellets. The initial results with some limited parameters indicated that it would be possible to pelletize without binder. However, extensive research on energy balance and economic assessment would be necessary to achieve economic feasibility.
Highlights
Biomass has been recognized and promoted as a potential opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from the energy sector
The appearance of the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) biomasses is distinctive; as the reaction time increased the color of the product which seems to be darker
It can be seen that volatile matter has decreased by about 4.8% in HTC pellets compared to white pellets, whereas the amount of fixed carbon is increased by 4.6%
Summary
Biomass has been recognized and promoted as a potential opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from the energy sector. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), known as wet pyrolysis, is a thermochemical treatment of biomass based materials taking place in the presence of water at moderate temperature ranging from 180 ̊C to 260 ̊C [1] [2] [3]. HTC may be more suitable for raw materials with varying moisture percentage because reaction takes place in a wet environment and eliminates the pre-drying phase which could potentially eliminate the energy intensive phase [4]. According to the study by [6], −OH groups in biomass are partly removed by dehydration reaction during wet pyrolysis, which reduces its capacity to absorb water, making the final product more hydrophobic than the raw material is. The viability of co-combustion with coal in large power plants suggests a significant increase in its demand and subsequently a potential to reduce fossil fuel consumption
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