Influence of phenol on glucose degradation during supercritical water gasification

Abstract

Biomass is the ideal alternative renewable energy that might help decrease CO 2 emissions. Super Critical Water Gasification (SCWG) is a recent treatment method which is still being developed as regards wet biomass. Above its critical point, water has specific properties and is able to convert wet biomass into gas, and especially into hydrogen. In order to propose a general reaction scheme of the SCWG as regards the lignocellulosic biomass conversion, the interactions between lignin and cellulose must be highlighted. Lignocellulosic biomass could be modelled with phenol (substitute for lignin) and glucose (substitute for cellulose). In a continuous flow tubular reactor, the gasification of solutions containing phenol and glucose or either of the two pure compounds is more efficiently performed when in presence of an alkaline catalyst. The comparison of global parameters, such as the Total Organic Carbon content (TOC), the composition of the liquid product phase (glucose, phenol, etc.), the volume and composition of the gas phase (H 2, CO 2, CH 4, etc.), showed that a small quantity of phenol in a glucose solution dramatically decreased the efficiency of the solution's conversion.