The purpose of this study is to optimize the processing conditions (temperature, pressure, process time, yield rate) for the conversion of biomass to a high-energy density biofuel. The hydrothermal polymerization (HTP) catalytic process has been developed for production of biofuel via hydrothermal processing using an acid-based catalyst. This study has shown that the HTP catalytic process for a reference feedstock lowered the temperature by 10 to 40 °C, reduced the pressure requirement by 1 to 2 MPa, increased the rate of yield by 22%, and shortened the total processing time by up to 3 h when compared to the conventional hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process. FTIR spectrum analysis of the HTP catalytic biofuel has shown that lignin in the biomass is preserved, while the pure HTC process destroyed the lignin in the biomass. GC/MS analysis of the process liquid determined the changes of the intermediate soluble components as a function of time. By measuring the 2,5-hydroxymethyl furfu... [more]

The risks associated with dust explosions still exist in industries that either process or handle combustible dust. This explosion risk could be prevented or mitigated by applying the principle of inherent safety. One effective principle is to add an inert material to a highly combustible material in order to decrease its ignition sensitivity. This paper deals with an experimental investigation of the influence of inert dust on the minimum ignition temperature and the minimum explosion energy of combustible dust. The experiments detailed here were performed in a Godbert−Greenwald (GG) furnace and a 1.2 L Hartmann tube. The combustible dust (polyethylene—PE; 800 mesh) and four inert powders (NaHCO3, Na2C2O4, KHCO3, and K2C2O4) were used. The suppression effects of the four inert powders on the minimum ignition temperature and the minimum explosion energy of the PE dust have been evaluated and compared with each other. The results show that all of the four different inert dusts have an e... [more]

This paper demonstrates an RF thermal plasma pyrolysis reaction apparatus that achieves 89 wt.% reaction conversion yield with no tar content. The demonstrated experimental apparatus consists of a 1100 W RFVII Inc. (104 Church St, Newfield, NJ 08344, United States) @ 13.56 MHz RF thermal plasma generator, a Navio matching network, intelligent feedback controller, and an 8-turn copper RF-ICP torch embedded in a 12 L thermochemical reactor. The intelligent feedback controller optimizes the thermal performance based on feedback signals from three online gas analyzers: CO, CO2 and NOx. The feedback controller output signal controls the RF thermal plasma torch current that provides real-time temperature control. The proposed reaction system achieves precise temperature profiles for both pyrolysis and gasification as well as increases end-product yield and eliminates undesired products such as tar and char. The identified hydrocarbon liquid mixture is 90 wt.% gasoline and 10 wt.%. diesel. Th... [more]

Metal aluminum has been widely used as an ingredient in propellant, gunpowder and thermite, but there is less understanding of the combustion mechanism of aluminum particles from submicron to several microns in diameter. This paper proposes to experimentally investigate the ignition and combustion characteristics of individual aluminum particles below 10 μm. A specific in situ diagnostic experimental apparatus was first designed for directly observing the ignition and combustion behaviors of individual aluminum particles, with a submicrometer spatial resolution and a temporal resolution of tens of microseconds. Direct observation through microscopic high-speed cinematography demonstrated that, when heated by a continuous laser, individual aluminum particles thermally expanded, followed by shell rupture; the molten aluminum core overflowed and evaporated, leading to ignition and combustion. Further results showed that, when the laser power densities were gradually increased (5.88, 7.56... [more]

A thermosyphon-fixed bed reactor was designed and constructed to investigate the temperature distribution of the cassava rhizome and its decomposition behavior. To study the properties of torrefied char obtained from this reactor, cassava rhizome was torrefied in five different configurations, including the thermosyphon-fixed bed reactor, a laboratory reactor in compact bulk arrangement with N2 as the purge gas and without any purge gas, and another one in a hollow bulk arrangement with and without purge gas. It was found that the use of thermosyphons with a fixed bed reactor improved the uniform temperature distribution. The average heating rate to the cassava rhizome bed was 1.40 °C/min, which was 2.59 times higher than that of the fixed bed reactor without thermosyphons. Compared to the other configurations, this reactor gave the highest higher heating value (HHV) and the lowest mass yield of 23.97 MJ/kg and 47.84%, respectively. The water vapor produced in this reactor played an au... [more]

Studies were undertaken to characterize the intrinsic reactivity of Fe0-bearing steel wool (Fe0 SW) materials using the ethylenediaminetetraacetate method (EDTA test). A 2 mM Na2-EDTA solution was used in batch and column leaching experiments. A total of 15 Fe0 SW specimens and one granular iron (GI) were tested in batch experiments. Column experiments were performed with four Fe0 SW of the same grade but from various suppliers and the GI. The conventional EDTA test (0.100 g Fe0, 50 mL EDTA, 96 h) protocol was modified in two manners: (i) Decreasing the experimental duration (down to 24 h) and (ii) decreasing the Fe0 mass (down to 0.01 g). Column leaching studies involved glass columns filled to 1/4 with sand, on top of which 0.50 g of Fe0 was placed. Columns were daily gravity fed with EDTA and effluent analyzed for Fe concentration. Selected reactive Fe0 SW specimens were additionally investigated for discoloration efficiency of methylene blue (MB) in shaken batch experiments (75 rpm... [more]

The reduction of heavy and radioactive metal pollution of industrial wastewater remains a vital challenge. Due to layered structure and developed surface, potassium polytitanate had potential in becoming an effective sorbent for metal extraction from wastewater in the presented paper. On the basis of the different sorption models, this paper studied the mechanism of Pb2+ and Sr2+ cation extraction from aqueous solution by non-crystalline potassium polytitanate produced by molten salt synthesis. The ion exchange during metal extraction from model solutions was proven by kinetic analysis of ion concentration change, electronic microscopy, and X-ray fluorescence analysis of sorbent before and after sorption, as well as by theoretical modeling of potassium, lead, and strontium polytitanates. The sorption was limited by the inner diffusion in the potassium polytitanate (PPT) interlayer space, as was shown using the Boyd diffusion model. The sorption processes can be described by Ho and McKa... [more]

The production of organic acids by biotechnological processes has experienced a notable impulse with the advent of first and second generation biorefineries and the need of searching for renewable and sustainable feedstock, such as biomass. Fumaric acid is a promising biomonomer for polyamide production and a well-known acidulant and preservative in food and feed industries. Malic acid is a well-known food acidulant with a high market share. The biotechnological Fumaric and Malic acid production via fungi of the Rhizopus genus is being explored nowadays as a process for the valorization of food and food-related waste to obtain food ingredients and key platform chemicals of the so-called biochemical biorefinery. In this work, a preliminary study is performed to find reproducible conditions for the production of the acids by Rhizopus arrhizus NRRL 1526 by controlling fungi morphology and inoculum conditions. Afterwards, several production runs are performed to obtain biomass, glucose, an... [more]

The boundary layer flow of sodium alginate ( NaAlg ) based ( Cu − CuO ) hybrid nanofluid, over a curved expanding surface, has been investigated. Heat and mass transport phenomena have also been analyzed. Moreover, the impacts of chemical reaction, magnetic field and nonlinear thermal radiation are also a part of this study. This arrangement has great practical relevance, especially in the polymer and chemical industries. We have extended the Bruggeman model to make it capable of capturing the thermal conductivity of ( Cu − CuO ) / NaAlg hybrid nanofluid. We have employed some suitable transformations to obtain the governing system of nonlinear ODEs. Runge − Kutta − Fehlberg algorithm, accompanied by a shooting technique, has been employed to solve the governing system numerically. The changes in the flow and heat transfer distribution, due to various parameters, have been captured and portrayed in the form of graphs. It has been found that t... [more]

In this study, the kinetics of flue gas hydrate formation in bulk water in the presence of selected amino acids and surfactants are investigated. Four amino acids (3000 ppm) are selected based on different hydropathy index. Constant-ramping and isothermal experiments at 120 bar pressure and 1 °C temperature are carried out to compare their hydrate promotion capabilities with surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) (500−3000 ppm) and water. Based on experimental results, we report the correlation between hydrate promotion capability of amino acids and their hydrophobicity. Hydrophobic amino acids show stronger flue gas hydrate promotion capability than water and hydrophilic amino acids. We discuss the controlling mechanisms to differentiate between promoters and inhibitors’ roles among the amino acids. Between 2000−3000 ppm concentrations, hydrophobic amino acids have near similar promotion capabilities as SDS. This research highlights the potential use of amino acids as promoters or in... [more]

A good way to make carbon materials was presented in low-temperature polyvinyl chloride (PVC) carbonization by catalysis. The process of low-temperature PVC carbonization by CuAl-layered double hydroxide (CuAl-LDH) was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and tubular furnace. The results show that CuAl-LDH accounting for 5% of PVC mass enabled acceleration of the dehydrochlorination in PVC as soon as possible and maximized the yield of the PVC carbonized product. The vacuum with 0.08 MPa, 20 °C/min heating rate and 90 min carbonized maintenance time were optimal for PVC carbonization. Moreover, the best morphology and yield of the carbonized product was provided at a carbonization temperature of 300 °C.

The heating rate, firepower, and thermal efficiency of a modified rocket stove using sawdust and liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as co-firing fuel were investigated. Three modified rocket stoves with a height of 400 mm and outside diameters of 225, 385, and 550 mm were tested. It was found that there was an insignificant difference in heating rate and firepower when stoves were tested without co-firing with LPG. In this case, the stove heating rate was in the range of 1.49−1.55 °C/min. When LPG was used, the heating rate tended to linearly increase with the increase of LPG flow rate. The heating rate was in range of 2.42−2.80, 2.63−3.27, and 3.07−4.22 °C/min when LPG consumption rates were 2.38 × 10−5, 3.33 × 10−5, and 5.00 × 10−5 kg/s, respectively. The slight increase of stove heating rate and firepower was seen when the stove diameter was increased from 225 to 385 mm. The increase of stove diameter from 385 to 550 mm resulted in a huge increase of heating rate and firepower. Thermal effi... [more]

Cs−pollucite can be a potential solid base catalyst due to the presence of (Si-O-Al)−Cs+ basic sites. However, it severely suffers from molecular diffusion and pore accessibility problems due to its small micropore opening. Herein, we report the use of new organosilane, viz. dimethyloctadecyl[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]ammonium chloride (TPOAC), as a promising pore-expanding agent to develop the hierarchical structure in nanosized Cs−pollucite. In respect to this, four different amounts of TPOAC were added during the synthesis of hierarchical Cs−pollucite (CP-x, x = 0, 0.3, 1.0, or 2.0, where x is the molar ratio of TPOAC) in order to investigate the effects of TPOAC in the crystallization process of Cs−pollucite. The results show that an addition of TPOAC altered the physico-chemical and morphological properties of hierarchical Cs−pollucite, such as the crystallinity, crystallite size, pore size distribution, surface areas, pore volume, and surface basicity. The prepared solids were al... [more]

Municipal solid waste (MSW) gasification could be a novel method that shows the various advantages over traditional MSW treatments in China. Other research concluded that MSW gasification was operating by the assistant heat, and the gasification may occur under medium temperature. So, this study is aimed to investigate MSW gasification and pyrolysis behavior and analyze the syngas evolution and reaction mechanism. The MSW samples were collected in daily life and the experiments were carried out in a fixed tubular reactor below 650 °C. The effects of medium temperature and oxygen content on syngas quality were elucidated in depth. The results have shown that temperature can promote the syngas quality in the range of 550−650 °C, because the increasing temperature strengthens the reaction rate. The oxygen content should be controlled in a certain range, or oxidation reactions will be more prominent during gasification. The optimal gasification condition in this study was obtained at 650 °... [more]

Biomass pyrolysis and polypropylene (PP) pyrolysis in a stirred tank reactor exhibited different heat transfer phenomena whereby heat transfer in biomass pyrolysis was driven predominantly by heat radiation and PP pyrolysis by heat convection. Therefore, co-pyrolysis could exhibit be expected to display various heat transfer phenomena depending on the feed composition. The objective of the present work was to determine how heat transfer, which was affected by feed composition, affected the yield and composition of the non-polar fraction. Analysis of heat transfer phenomena was based on the existence of two regimes in the previous research in which in regime 1 (the range of PP composition in the feeds is 0−40%), mass ejection from biomass particles occurred without biomass particle swelling, while in regime 2 (the range of PP composition in the feeds is 40−100%), mass ejection was preceded by biomass particle swelling. The co-pyrolysis was carried out in a stirred tank reactor with heat... [more]

Innovative nanofibrous membranes based on Pd/Au catalysts immobilized via electrospinning onto different polymers were engineered and tested in the selective oxidation of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural in an aqueous phase. The type of polymer and the method used to insert the active phases in the membrane were demonstrated to have a significant effect on catalytic performance. The hydrophilicity and the glass transition temperature of the polymeric component are key factors for producing active and selective materials. Nylon-based membranes loaded with unsupported metal nanoparticles were demonstrated to be more efficient than polyacrylonitrile-based membranes, displaying good stability and leading to high yield in 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid. These results underline the promising potential of large-scale applications of electrospinning for the preparation of catalytic nanofibrous membranes to be used in processes for the conversion of renewable molecules.

Photoelectrochemical production of hydrogen peroxide was studied by using a cell functioning with a WO3 photoanode and an air breathing cathode made of carbon cloth with a hydrophobic layer of carbon black. The photoanode functioned in the absence of any sacrificial agent by water splitting, but the produced photocurrent was doubled in the presence of glycerol or ethanol. Hydrogen peroxide production was monitored in all cases, mainly in the presence of glycerol. The presence or absence of the organic fuel affected only the obtained photocurrent. The Faradaic efficiency for hydrogen peroxide production was the same in all cases, mounting up to 74%. The duplication of the photocurrent in the presence of biomass derivatives such as glycerol or ethanol and the fact that WO3 absorbed light in a substantial range of the visible spectrum promotes the presently studied system as a sustainable source of hydrogen peroxide production.

A titanium nitride (TiN) coating using microwaves can be accomplished in air, and satisfies the required conditions of an on-demand TiN coating process. However, the coating mechanism using microwaves is not completely clear. In this study, to understand the detailed mechanism of microwave titanium nitridation in air, the quantity of nitrogen and oxygen in reacted TiN powder has been investigated by an inert melting method. Titanium powders were irradiated with microwaves by a multi-mode type 2.45 GHz microwave irradiation apparatus, while also being held at various temperatures for two different dwell times. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed that nitridation of the powder progressed with increasing process temperature, and the nitridation corresponds to the powder color after microwave irradiation. The nitrogen contents of the samples increased with increasing processing temperature and dwell time, unlike oxygen. It is postulated that the reaction of convected air with titanium... [more]

The yield and composition of the biocrude obtained by hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of Nannocloropsis gaditana using heterogeneous catalysts were evaluated. The catalysts were based on metal oxides (CaO, CeO2, La2O3, MnO2, and Al2O3). The reactions were performed in a batch autoclave reactor at 320 °C for 10 min with a 1:10 (wt/wt) microalga:water ratio. These catalysts increased the yield of the liquefaction phase (from 94.14 ± 0.30 wt% for La2O3 to 99.49 ± 0.11 wt% for MnO2) as compared with the thermal reaction (92.60 ± 1.20 wt%). Consequently, the biocrude yields also raised in the metal oxides catalysed HTL, showing values remarkably higher for the CaO (49.73 ± 0.9 wt%) in comparison to the HTL without catalyst (42.60 ± 0.70 wt%). The N and O content of the biocrude obtained from non-catalytic HTL were 6.11 ± 0.02 wt% and 10.50 ± 0.50 wt%, respectively. In this sense, the use of the metal oxides decreased the N content of the biocrude (4.62 ± 0.15−5.45 ± 0.11 wt%), although, the... [more]

The aim of the work is a comparison of two combustion systems of fuels with different reactivity. The first is combustion of the fuel mixture and the second is combustion in a dual-fuel engine. Diesel fuel was burned with pure ethanol. Both methods of co-firing fuels have both advantages and disadvantages. Attention was paid to the combustion stability aspect determined by COVIMEP as well as the probability density function of IMEP. It was analyzed also the spread of the maximum pressure value, the angle of the position of maximum pressure. The influence of ethanol on ignition delay time spread and end of combustion process was evaluated. The experimental investigation was conducted on 1-cylinder air cooled compression ignition engine. The test engine operated with constant rpm equal to 1500 rpm and constant angle of start of diesel fuel injection. The engine was operated with ethanol up to 50% of its energy fraction.

This work investigated quality properties of pellets of raw cassava rhizome (P-RC), pellets of pelletized cassava rhizome followed by torrefaction (T-CP), and pellets of torrefied cassava rhizome followed by pelletizing (P-TC). Torrefaction was conducted at temperatures of 230, 250, and 280 °C for 30 min. Pyrolysis characteristics of T-CP and P-TC at torrefied temperatures of 230 and 250 °C were studied using thermogravimetric analysis. It was found that at the similar torrefied temperature, P-TC had a higher bulk density, energy density, and pellet durability than that of T-CP and P-RC while T-CP had a higher HHV and moisture absorption than P-TC and P-RC. The bulk density of P-TC was 1.13−1.19 and 1.33−1.52 times higher than that of P-RC and T-CP, respectively. The HHV of T-CP was 1.07 and 1.29 times higher than P-TC and P-RC, respectively. The energy density of P-TC was 1.24−1.56 and 1.20−1.41 times higher than that of P-RC and T-CP. In terms of Pellet Fuel Institute (PFI) standard,... [more]

Fenton reactions that involve nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) have shown high promise in the removal of organic pollutants. In this work, nZVI stabilized with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) was evaluated for drimaren red X-6BN (DRX-6BN, 10 mg/L) and bisphenol-a (BPA, 800 mg/L) removal. Oxidation reactions were conducted for removal of both compounds by varying nZVI/CMC concentration (0.01−5 g/L), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, 0.01−0.1 g/L), and pH (3−9). DRX-6BN degradation rate was the highest (kinetic constant (kobs) = 4.622 h−1) when working at pH 3 and 3 g/L of nZVI/CMC. Increasing H2O2 concentration could not improve the reaction. For BPA, all the conditions tested showed removals of more than 96% with 0.02 g/L of H2O2. This result was compared with the activity of nZVI loaded in hydrophilic PVDF (Polyvinylidene fluoride) membranes by polyacrylic acid (PAA) to entrap nanoparticles to the membrane surface. As expected, the attachment of nZVI onto the membranes diminished nanoparticles’ acti... [more]

A kinetic model for the dithiolactone-mediated radical polymerization of vinyl monomers based on the persistent radical effect and reversible addition (negligible fragmentation) was used to calculate the polymerization rate and describe molar mass development in the polymerization of methyl methacrylate at 60 °C, using 2,2-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator, as well as dihydro-5-phenyl-2(3H)-thiophenethione (DTL1) and dihydro-2(3H)-thiophenethione (DTL2) as controllers. The model was implemented in the PREDICI commercial software. A good agreement between experimental data and model predictions was obtained.

Companies in the field of the collection and treatment of waste cooking oils (WCO) for subsequent biodiesel production usually have to cope with high acidity oils, which cannot be directly transformed into fatty acid methyl esters due to soap production. Since glycerine is the main byproduct of biodiesel production, these high acidity oils could be esterified with the glycerine surplus to transform the free fatty acids (FFA) into triglycerides before performing the transesterification. In this work, commercial glycerol was esterified with commercial fatty acids and commercial fatty acid/lampante olive oil mixtures over tin (II) chloride. In the first set of experiments, the esterification of linoleic acid with glycerol excess from 20 to 80% molar over the stoichiometric was performed. From 20% glycerol excess, there was no improvement in FFA reduction. Using 20% glycerol excess, the performance of a biochar obtained from heavy metal-contaminated plant roots was compared to that of SnCl... [more]

The commercial COCO simulation program was used to mimic the experimental slow pyrolysis process of five different biomasses based on thermodynamic consideration. The program generated the optimum set of reaction kinetic parameters and reaction stoichiometric numbers that best described the experimental yields of solid, liquid and gas products. It was found that the simulation scheme could predict the product yields over the temperature range from 300 to 800 °C with reasonable accuracy of less than 10% average error. An attempt was made to generalize the biomass pyrolysis behavior by dividing the five biomasses into two groups based on the single-peak and two-peak characteristics of the DTG (derivative thermogravimetry) curves. It was found that this approximate approach was able to predict the product yields reasonably well. The proposed simulation method was extended to the analysis of slow pyrolysis results derived from previous investigations. The results obtained showed that the p... [more]