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Processes
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Thermochemical Conversion and Revalue of Biomass
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Thermochemical Conversion and Revalue of Biomass

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Chemical Processes and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 7914

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Javier Remon

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Carboquímica (ICB), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), 50015 Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: biomass; waste and residues; biofuels; biochemicals; biorefinery; co-valorisation; carbon-neutral processes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The need to decrease the carbon footprint and combat climate change and the exponential growth in the demand for energy and chemicals worldwide, due to global megatrends, have led researchers to explore the use of alternative feedstocks together with the development of novel and environmentally friendly technologies to produce fuels and chemicals. Under this scenario, the valorization of biomass and/or bio-based feedstocks and wastes via thermochemical conversion is regarded as an excellent alternative for the production of these commodities. This is accounted for by the renewable origin of the feedstocks and the carbon-neutral operating conditions used in the thermochemical processes.

Given this background, this Special Issue focuses on the thermochemical conversion of biomass and/or bio-based feedstocks and wastes into biofuels, bio-based chemicals, and biomaterials. As such, we kindly invite authors to submit original communications, full research papers, and reviews addressing their latest research into the use of thermochemical processes and novel strategies for the valorization of biomass. This includes, but it is not limited to, biomass and/or bio-based feedstocks valorization by steam reforming, aqueous phase reforming, hydrothermal liquefaction, hydrothermal carbonization, hydrolysis, torrefaction, gasification, pyrolysis, and the use of supercritical fluids, among other thermochemical processes or combination of processes recently developed to this end.

This Special Issue will bring together cutting-edge research on biomass valorization and upgrading conducted at institutions from all around the world.

Dr. Javier Remón
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biomass
  • bio-based feedstocks
  • thermochemical conversion
  • biofuels
  • biochemicals
  • biomaterials
  • green chemistry
  • sustainable engineering

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1328 KiB  
Article
Influence of Cellulose Characteristics on Pyrolysis Suitability
by María E. Eugenio, Mercedes Ruiz-Montoya, Raquel Martín-Sampedro, David Ibarra and Manuel J. Díaz
Processes 2021, 9(9), 1584; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9091584 - 04 Sep 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1563
Abstract
Cellulose is the most abundant component of biomass and the one that requires the most activation energy (Ea) for pyrolysis. In this study, the dependence of Ea on the intrinsic cellulose characteristics, such as the degree of polymerization (DP), crystallinity, and crystal size, [...] Read more.
Cellulose is the most abundant component of biomass and the one that requires the most activation energy (Ea) for pyrolysis. In this study, the dependence of Ea on the intrinsic cellulose characteristics, such as the degree of polymerization (DP), crystallinity, and crystal size, was studied in different cellulose samples, including samples from Eucalyptus globulus, Ulmus minor, Linun usitatissimum, Olea europaea, Robinia pseudoacacia, and Populus alba. Then, to describe the pyrolytic degradation of cellulose, the Ozawa–Flynn–Wall kinetic method was the most appropriate among the isoconversional models studied. An acceptable quadratic relationship of R2 > 0.9 between the Ea values of the different cellulose samples with their corresponding DP, crystallinity index, and crystal size values was found. Therefore, low crystallinity and low-to-medium crystal size values are desired to obtain lower Ea values for cellulose pyrolysis. On the other hand, DP did not present a clear effect on Ea in the studied DP range. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermochemical Conversion and Revalue of Biomass)
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17 pages, 1202 KiB  
Article
Influence of the Ni-Co/Al-Mg Catalyst Loading in the Continuous Aqueous Phase Reforming of the Bio-Oil Aqueous Fraction
by Pablo Lozano, Ana I. Simón, Lucía García, Joaquín Ruiz, Miriam Oliva and Jesús Arauzo
Processes 2021, 9(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9010081 - 01 Jan 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1801
Abstract
The effect of catalyst loading in the Aqueous Phase Reforming (APR) of bio-oil aqueous fraction has been studied with a Ni-Co/Al-Mg coprecipitated catalyst. Because of the high content of water in the bio-oil aqueous fraction, APR could be a useful process to convert [...] Read more.
The effect of catalyst loading in the Aqueous Phase Reforming (APR) of bio-oil aqueous fraction has been studied with a Ni-Co/Al-Mg coprecipitated catalyst. Because of the high content of water in the bio-oil aqueous fraction, APR could be a useful process to convert this fraction into valuable products. Experiments of APR with continuous feeding of aqueous solution of acetol, butanol and acetic acid as the only compound, together with a simulated and a real aqueous fraction of bio-oil, were carried out. Liquid products in the liquid effluent of the APR model compounds were quantified and the reaction pathways were revised. The increase of catalyst loading produced an increase of gas production and a gas with higher alkanes content. Acetol was the compound with the highest reactivity while the conversion of acetic acid was very low. The presence of acetic acid in the feed caused catalyst deactivation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermochemical Conversion and Revalue of Biomass)
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15 pages, 2805 KiB  
Article
Torrefaction of Woody and Agricultural Biomass: Influence of the Presence of Water Vapor in the Gaseous Atmosphere
by María González Martínez, Estéban Hélias, Gilles Ratel, Sébastien Thiéry and Thierry Melkior
Processes 2021, 9(1), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9010030 - 25 Dec 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2086
Abstract
Biomass preheating in torrefaction at an industrial scale is possible through a direct contact with the hot gases released. However, their high water-content implies introducing moisture (around 20% v/v) in the torrefaction atmosphere, which may impact biomass thermochemical transformation. In this work, [...] Read more.
Biomass preheating in torrefaction at an industrial scale is possible through a direct contact with the hot gases released. However, their high water-content implies introducing moisture (around 20% v/v) in the torrefaction atmosphere, which may impact biomass thermochemical transformation. In this work, this situation was investigated for wheat straw, beech wood and pine forest residue in torrefaction in two complementary experimental devices. Firstly, experiments in chemical regime carried out in a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) showed that biomass degradation started from lower temperatures and was faster under a moist atmosphere (20% v/v water content) for all biomass samples. This suggests that moisture might promote biomass components’ degradation reactions from lower temperatures than those observed under a dry atmosphere. Furthermore, biomass inorganic composition might play a role in the extent of biomass degradation in torrefaction in the presence of moisture. Secondly, torrefaction experiments on a lab-scale device made possible to assess the influence of temperature and residence time under dry and 100% moist atmosphere. In this case, the difference in solid mass loss between dry and moist torrefaction was only significant for wheat straw. Globally, an effect of water vapor on biomass transformation through torrefaction was observed (maximum 10%db), which appeared to be dependent on the biomass type and composition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermochemical Conversion and Revalue of Biomass)
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14 pages, 3259 KiB  
Article
Effect of Ni(NO3)2 Pretreatment on the Pyrolysis of Organsolv Lignin Derived from Corncob Residue
by Wenli Wang, Yichen Liu, Yue Wang, Longfei Liu and Changwei Hu
Processes 2021, 9(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9010023 - 24 Dec 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1753
Abstract
The thermal degradation of lignin for value-added fuels and chemicals is important for environment improvement and sustainable development. The impact of pretreatment and catalysis of Ni(NO3)2 on the pyrolysis behavior of organsolv lignin were studied in the present work. Samples [...] Read more.
The thermal degradation of lignin for value-added fuels and chemicals is important for environment improvement and sustainable development. The impact of pretreatment and catalysis of Ni(NO3)2 on the pyrolysis behavior of organsolv lignin were studied in the present work. Samples were pyrolyzed at 500 ∘C with an upward fixed bed, and the characteristics of bio-oil were determined. After pretreatment by Ni(NO3)2, the yield of monophenols increased from 23.3 wt.% to 30.2 wt.% in “Ni-washed” and decreased slightly from 23.3 wt.% to 20.3 wt.% in “Ni-unwashed”. Meanwhile, the selective formation of vinyl-monophenols was promoted in “Ni-unwashed”, which indicated that the existence of nickel species promoted the dehydration of C-OH and breakage of C-C in pyrolysis. In comparison with “Water”, HHV of bio-oil derived from “Ni-unwashed” slightly increased from 27.94 mJ/kg to 28.46 mJ/kg, suggesting that the lowering of oxygen content in bio-oil is associated with improved quality. Furthermore, the content of H2 in gas products dramatically increased from 2.0% to 7.6% and 17.1%, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermochemical Conversion and Revalue of Biomass)
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