Studies on Biomass conversion into useful products

Abstract

Biomass in general denotes the organic matter obtained from plants such as wood, crop residue, vegetable oil, and other wastes like animal fats, animal manure, organic garbage, sewage, etc. In developing countries, still wood is used as firewood as a heat source and a portion of it goes for paper and pulp making. The other biomass wastes can be converted into useful products by the thermochemical or biochemical method. Prosopis juliflora is one of the most invasive weed species in Africa, Asia, and Australia. It poses a great threat and serious environmental issues to plants, and animals by ruining the biodiversity and ecosystem. The species was introduced in 1877 to improve the vegetation in the arid tracts of South India and now it has become a menace. As an abundant source, it can be removed and used as a heating source in industries as firewood or used as a substitute for coal and other solid fuels. The advantage of using Prosopis juliflora as a substitute for fuel and it can also be converted into energy-intensified charcoal having a calorific value of 24.43 MJ/kg. newlineThe two promising thermochemical conversion routes that are chosen to make this Prosopis juliflora biomass into useful products chosen for the study are Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) and Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC). The useful products got from this thermochemical conversion route are biochar, bio-oil, and biogas. The main objective of the study is to maximize the yield of bio-oil and biochar by varying the process parameters such as temperature (and#8451;), reaction time (min), and water loading (mL/g of biomass) using Response surface methodology. The preliminary experiments were performed in a 50 mL hydrothermal reactor and a further study has been carried out in a 600 mL hydrothermal reactor setup. newline newline