Pyrolysis of biomass

The invention relates to a process for the pyrolysis of biomass, the process comprising the steps of a) providing the biomass, b) providing a salt, c) combining the biomass and the salt, d) feeding the combined biomass and salt to an extruder, e) heating the combined biomass and salt in the extruder, thereby melting the salt if solid, and dissolving and/or dispersing the biomass in the molten salt, f) transporting the mixture through the extruder at pyrolysis conditions, thereby creating liquid pyrolysis products, gases, and char, g) removing the liquid pyrolysis products, gases, char and salt from the extruder, and h) separating the liquid pyrolysis products from the salt, the gases and the char

A modeling based study on the integration of 10 MWth indirect torrefied biomass gasification, methanol and power production

This work is focused on the process system modelling of an indirectly heated gasifier (10 MWth) using torrefied wood as feedstock and its integration with methanol and power production using Aspen Plus®. The modelling of the gasification process along with the obtained reaction kinetics were validated with experimental data found in literature. Different processing steps such as gasification, gas cleaning and upgrading, methanol synthesis and energy conversion, were modelled and their performance was optimized through a series of sensitivity studies. The results obtained were then used to investigate the effect of different technologies and the variation of operational parameters on the overall process performance. Three cases were examined: “syngas production” (case 1), “methanol production” (case 2), and “power production” (IGCC) (case 3). Case 1 and case 2 were simulated using sand and dolomite as bed materials respectively, in order to study the incorporation of Absorption Enhanced Reforming (AER) on the syngas and methanol production efficiency. For case 3 the simulation was performed for two different configurations: a conventional Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) and an innovative Inverted Brayton Cycle (IBC) turbine system. Dolomite was used as the bed material for both configurations. For case 1, an increase of 5% in hydrogen yield in the product gas when AER is applied was observed. For case 2, higer values of Cold Gas Efficiency and Net Efficiency (34% and 60% instead of 33% and 55%, respectively) and a slightly lower value of Carbon Conversion (96% instead of 100%) were obtained when AER was employed. Gasification temperature was lowered by 110 °C in this scenario. For case 3, a lower value of Net Efficiency was obtained when IBC was considered (43% instead of 47%), while a value of 60% was obtained for methanol production with AE. Moreover, the results of case 3, showed that the latent heat in the hot syngas is best utilised when IBC is considered. The developed model accurately predicted the composition of the produced gas and the operational conditions of all the identified blocks within the methanol synthesis and power production processes. This way the use of this model as a generic tool to compare the utilization of different technologies on the performance of the overall process was validated.Large Scale Energy StorageEnergy Technolog

SE@RS AC?IJA~~RS A PHYSICAL Comparative evaluation of drying techniques for surface micromachining

Abstract Five different procedures commonly used to rinse and dry released microstructures are compared: evaporation drying with deionized (DI) water or methanol, sublimation drying with t-butyl alcohol orp-dichlorobenzene, and supercritical drying with COz. For objectivecomparison, identical test structures, made by the MCNC Multi-User EMS Processes (MUMPS), are used in evaluating the drying techniques. The test chips contain arrays of surface-micromachined polysilicon cantilevers (2 km thick, 2 pm gap from the substrate) with varying widths and lengths. Some beams feature dimples or tips to quantify their anti-stiction effect. This study reveals, for the first time, that the maximum beam length obtainable increases as the beam width increases for the cases of sublimation and supercritical dryin,, 0 opposite to the previously known case of evaporation drying. Both sublimation drying methods as well as supercritical drying rendered good results, releasing cantilevers up to 700 km in length without stiction. We also introduce a new setup that considerably improves the way sublimation is used to dry microstructures. 0 1998 Elsevier Science S.A

Transfer Learning Based Fault Detection for Suspension System Using Vibrational Analysis and Radar Plots

The suspension system is of paramount importance in any automobile. Thanks to the suspension system, every journey benefits from pleasant rides, stable driving and precise handling. However, the suspension system is prone to faults that can significantly impact the driving quality of the vehicle. This makes it essential to find and diagnose any faults in the suspension system and rectify them immediately. Numerous techniques have been used to identify and diagnose suspension faults, each with drawbacks. This paper’s proposed suspension fault detection system aims to detect these faults using deep transfer learning techniques instead of the time-consuming and expensive conventional methods. This paper used pre-trained networks such as Alex Net, ResNet-50, Google Net and VGG16 to identify the faults using radar plots of the vibration signals generated by the suspension system in eight cases. The vibration data were acquired using an accelerometer and data acquisition system placed on a test rig for eight different test conditions (seven faulty, one good). The deep learning model with the highest accuracy in identifying and detecting faults among the four models was chosen and adopted to find defects. The results state that VGG16 produced the highest classification accuracy of 96.70%

Public report on the marketability of the ABC-SALT middle distillates biofuels

Acknowledging the low TRL, this deliverable targets to analyze the ABC-Salt process with respect to its marketability. The process is investigated from a technical, economic, ecological and social perspectives: • The jet fuel market and current price development and production routes to produce sustainable aviation fuels are outlined. • Objectives of the process, the feedstock availability (and an according prospective product availability) and the target specifications of the final product are highlighted. • ABC-Salt products are benchmarked against thet targeted jet fuel specifications. • Process efficiencies, net production cost, global warming potential and the acceptability and acceptance are investigated. The results may aid to steer further researches beyond this projec

Novel Route to Produce Hydrocarbons from Woody Biomass Using Molten Salts

[Image: see text] The thermochemical decomposition of woody biomass has been widely identified as a promising route to produce renewable biofuels. More recently, the use of molten salts in combination with pyrolysis has gathered increased interest. The molten salts may act as a solvent, a heat transfer medium, and possibly also a catalyst. In this study, we report experimental studies on a process to convert woody biomass to a liquid hydrocarbon product with a very low oxygen content using molten salt pyrolysis (350–450 °C and atmospheric pressure) followed by subsequent catalytic conversions of the liquids obtained by pyrolysis. Pyrolysis of woody biomass in molten salt (ZnCl(2)/NaCl/KCl with a molar composition of 60:20:20) resulted in a liquid yield of 46 wt % at a temperature of 450 °C and a molten salt/biomass ratio of 10:1 (mass). The liquids are highly enriched in furfural (13 wt %) and acetic acid (14 wt %). To reduce complexity and experimental issues related to the production of sufficient amounts of pyrolysis oils for further catalytic upgrading, model studies were performed to convert both compounds to hydrocarbons using a three-step catalytic approach, viz., (i) ketonization of acetic acid to acetone, (ii) cross-aldol condensation between acetone and furfural to C(8)–C(13) products, followed by (iii) a two-stage catalytic hydrotreatment of the latter to liquid hydrocarbons. Ketonization of acetic acid to acetone was studied in a continuous setup over a ceria–zirconia-based catalyst at 250 °C. The catalyst showed no signs of deactivation over a period of 230 h while also achieving high selectivity toward acetone. Furfural was shown to have a negative effect on the catalyst performance, and as such, a separation step is required after pyrolysis to obtain an acetic-acid-enriched fraction. The cross-aldol condensation reaction between acetone and furfural was studied in a batch using a commercial Mg/Al hydrotalcite as the catalyst. Furfural was quantitatively converted with over 90% molar selectivity toward condensed products with a carbon number between C(8) and C(13). The two-stage hydrotreatment of the condensed product consisted of a stabilization step using a Ni-based Picula catalyst and a further deep hydrotreatment over a NiMo catalyst, in both batch setups. The final product with a residual 1.5 wt % O is rich in (cyclo)alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons. The overall carbon yield for the four-step approach, from pinewood biomass to middle distillates, is 21%, assuming that separation of furfural and acetic acid after the pyrolysis step can be performed without losses

System Study Towards the Integration of Indirect Biomass Gasification, Methanol and Power Production

The transition from a fossil based economy to a greener, bio-based economy remains challenged by the gap in technological maturity between bio-based processes and conventional fossil energy. Decreasing the price difference between fossil fuels and bio-fuels remains a major constraint. With 98% of the transportation sector now depending on fossil fuels (oil) as the primary fuel, methanol produced from CO2 and other greener sources is now growing in interest as a more sustainable fuel. This thesis focused on investigating the process biomass gasification, its challenges and its integration with methanol and power production. A number of gasification technologies were studied and the Indirect gasification technology was identified to be technologically advantageous to conventional gasification technologies. The Fast Internally Circulating Fluidised Bed (FICFB) gasification technology of the University of Technology, Vienna was modeled in Aspen Plus®. Different sets of kinetics were studied to improve the accuracy of the developed model in comparison with the data from the 100kW pilot plant at Gussing. The composition of the product gas from the developed model was then validated with the experimental data from the pilot plant if the FICFB gasifier, and found to be accurate up to 3.5%. The principle of Absorption Enhanced Reforming (AER) was then simulated in the developed gasifier by changing the bed material used to dolomite. With dolomite-CO2 sorption kinetics validated with literature, the AER principle in the gasifier predicted a 4% increase in hydrogen composition in the product gas obtained in addition to a slight increase in the cold gas efficiency of the system. Different processing steps required to convert biomass to methanol were then identified and modeled in the same Aspen Plus® model. The identified blocks, Gasifier, Gas Cleaning Unit, Methanol Synthesis and the Energy network were optimised by performing a number of sensitivity studies. The now optimised model was then used as a common tool to study the effect of choosing different technologies and parameters within the blocks on the overall process behaviour. Four different case studies were defined, each varying from each other by a difference in technology of one of the blocks. Sankey plots for each of these cases were drawn to visualize the energy losses in such complicated systems. Results of incorporating AER on the end methanol yield and the overall efficiency of the process were studied as one of the cases. Dolomite (AER) although very encouraging as a bed material during gasification, was shown to be detrimental to the methanol synthesis process when used as a common catalyst/bed material for the water gas shift reactor. Two different cases of IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) systems were modeled and studied by varying the gas turbine technology employed. A new technology Inverted Brayton Cycle (IBC) gas turbine was simulated against a standard IGCC system. The Inverted Brayton Cycle system was shown to closely efficient to a standard gas turbine system working on product gas from the gasifier. The scale of biomass gasification was then identified as a significant parameter, which would determine the suitable choice of gas turbine technology to be employed. The thesis concluded by discussing some of the more influential parameters observed during the course of this study and recommending further optimization and mitigation steps corresponding to each of these identified losses. The thesis served its purpose by developing a quantitative tool to compare and validate different technological solutions to improve the process of producing methanol and power from biomass.<br/