Abstract
Through the previous study a hydrothermal polymerization (HTP)—a catalytic methodology for treating various biomass and organic wastes—has been developed on a lab scale with a 1 L reactor and the results published. The research work described herein aims to ensure that the catalytic process is scalable for pilot and even commercial scale plants. A 1700 L binary reactor system has been built and the assumptions of a commercial scale plant that would have 10,000 to 20,000 L pressure vessels tested. The HTP catalytic biofuel process converts mono- and polysaccharides into a solid polymer fuel that is based on a furfuraldehyde ring system. The calorific value of the material obtained from the pilot plant is on the order of 27 MJ/kg and the material typically has low ash and fixed carbon content order of 48% which are about same as the lab results for various wood biomass feedstocks. Though a 1700 times scale up binary reactor system the scalability of the HTP catalytic methodology has been confirmed and the mass and energy balance of the binary reactor identified in order to provide fundamental data for commercial scale establishment in future.