Hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass continues to show promise in experimental and pilot scale tests for carbon partitioning toward desirable multi-phase organic products. A sensitivity analysis and detailed discussion on the techno-economic assessment results are presented for the different process integration and market case scenarios. The economic assessment showed that the minimum selling price of biocrude, based on present co-products market prices, hinders commercialization and ranges between 138 EUR to 178 EUR per MWh. The plant thermal efficiency increases by 3.5 to 4.6% compared to the conventional direct combustion case. The utilization of the liquefaction by-products and waste heat from the elevated processing conditions, coupled with the chemical upgrading of the feedstock enables the poly-generation of biocrude, electricity and district heat. This study presents a techno-economic evaluation of an integrated hydrothermal liquefaction system with downstream combined heat and power production from forest residues. Aqueous processing, namely hydrothermal liquefaction in subcritical water conditions, has been demonstrated experimentally to thermally densify solid lignocellulose into liquid fuels without the pre-requisite and energy consuming drying step. This is mainly due to the low calorific value of virgin feedstock, characterized generally with high moisture content. Waste biomass as a mean for global carbon dioxide emissions mitigation remains under-utilized. 4-Methyl-3-penten-2-one was the major compound in the heavy bio-oils produced in the catalytic runs. The heavy bio-oils from the runs both without and with colemanite are composed of phenols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, and benzene derivatives. However, these compounds were not observed in the run with colemanite at the same temperature. The light bio-oil obtained without the catalyst at 300 ☌ contained furfurals. Most of the identified compounds in the light bio-oils were phenols. The highest heating values were obtained from the hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass using colemanite at 350 ☌: 23.81 MJ/kg for LBO and 27.53 MJ/kg for HBO. at 300 ☌ without and with colemanite, respectively. The total bio-oil yields were 22 wt% and 41 wt% ca. The highest light bio-oil yield (11.1 wt%) and the highest heavy bio-oil yield (29.8 wt%) were obtained at 300 ☌ with colemanite. Hydrothermal liquefaction experiments were performed at 250, 300 and 350 ☌ with and without colemanite. This study reports the effects of a natural calcium borate mineral, colemanite, on the hydrothermal liquefaction of beech wood biomass.

Sema 17.1 crack