Abstracts are organized by session in chronological order The - PDF document

Advanced Biofuels Symposium Oral Presentation Abstracts Abstracts are organized by session in chronological order The symposium agenda is available online for more information on sessions Forest biomass for biofuel production (Feedstock) Production of biocrude oil from high water content biomass and biosolids in sub- critical water Speaker: Charles Xu, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Western Ontario Authors: Laleh Nazari, ICFAR, Faculty of Engineering, Western University; Sean Yuan, ICFAR, Faculty of Engineering, Western University; Domenico Santoro, TROJAN TECHNOLOGIES; Mita Ray, Department of Chem. & Biochem. Eng., Western University; Chunbao (Charles) Xu, ICFAR, Faculty of Engineering, Western University Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a process where biomass of high water content can be heat treated directly in the absence of oxygen at 150-450 o C and pressure (up to 25-30 MPa). In this study, effects of different HTL operating conditions such as type of catalyst, temperature, pressure, and residence time on the yields and quality of the liquefaction products were studied. A set of catalyst screening experiments was performed to investigate the effect of different homogenous and heterogeneous catalysts in the liquefaction of pine wood sawdust as model biomass in hot compressed water. The experiments were conducted in a 100 mL stirred reactor at 300 o C and for 30 min under initial nitrogen pressure of 2 MPa, with dry and ash-free solid concentration of 10 wt% in feed. The most active catalyst in terms of bio-crude oil production was selected to be used in hydrothermal liquefaction of thickened wastewater sludge (TWAS). All the catalysts tested, i.e. hydrotalcite (HT), colemanite, potassium carbonate (K 2 CO 3 ), potassium hydroxide (KOH), iron sulphate (FeSO 4 ), magnesium oxide (MgO), and potassium hydroxide/hydrotalcite (KOH/HT) were found to be effective for increasing bio-crude oil production; however, the homogenous catalysts (K 2 CO 3 , KOH, FeSO 4 ) were more effective compared to the heterogeneous ones (hydrotalcite (HT), colemanite, MgO). The maximum bio-crude oil yield was 39.52 wt% in presence of 5 wt% KOH catalyst. Hydrotalcite was the most active catalyst in terms of biomass conversion and water-soluble product yield (54.8 wt%), leading to the lowest SR yield (10.5 wt%) among all catalysts tested. The yields of gaseous products in all experiments were minimal and in the range of 0.1-0.3 wt%. KOH was

chosen as the catalyst for hydrothermal liquefaction of TWAS. Thermal treatment of the sludge helps to reduce its volume, improve its dewaterability and produces value-added products such as bio- crude oil from this waste material. The green integrated forest biorefinery, an opportunity for the forestry sector Speaker: Mariya Marinova, Research Scientist, École Polytechnique de Montréal Authors: Mariya Marinova, Sourour Ben Cheikh, Tatiana Rafione The green integrated forest biorefinery (GIFBR) is an innovative concept that can be implemented in Canadian pulp and paper mills. This facility is composed of three revenue-generating centers: a Kraft process producing wood pulp, a hemicelluloses plant producing sugar-derived products, and a biomass gasifier generating syngas, part of which can be used to drive a heat and power generation unit or converted into biofuels. There are clear advantages for such integrated facilities, over grassroots facilities: the feedstock is available and infrastructures in place can be shared. There are also pitfalls: the increased demand for thermal energy created by the biomass conversion unit could lead to an increased dependency on fossil fuels. Case studies have been performed in which the receptor pulping mill is a Kraft mill from which a hemicelluloses stream is diverted and converted into sugar-based products such as ethanol or butanol. It has been shown that the overall manufacturing site can be operated with nil fossil fuel consumption, provided that the following conditions are met: the Kraft mill and the biomass conversion plant are highly integrated from the stand point of thermal energy, water and chemicals, and a biomass gasifier is installed to supply biofuel to the lime kiln (a component of the Kraft process usually burning natural gas). Several syngas valorization strategies have been evaluated to take advantage of fluctuation in demand and sales prices: heat and power production, biofuels such as FT diesel, ethanol from mixed alcohol synthesis, methanol and ammonia. The investment options have been compared with respect to annual net profit for the potential market scenarios. Effectiveness of purging on preventing gas emission buildup in wood pellet storage Speaker: Fahimeh Yazdanpanah, Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical Engineering, University of British Columbia Authors: F. Yazdanpanah, S. Sokhansanj 1,2 , C.J. Lim 1 , A. Lau 1 , X. Bi 1 , S. Melin 1,3 1 Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada 2 Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, U.S.A. 3 Delta Research Corporation, Delta, Canada Storage of wood pellets has resulted in several deadly accidents in connection with off-gassing and self-heating. A forced ventilation system should be in place to sweep the off-gases as well as

controlling the thermal conditions in the stored pellets. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of a purging system and quantify the time and volume of the gas needed to sweep the off-gases from the experimental silo, multiple purging tests were done in a pilot scale silo. To identify the degree of mixing in the silo, experiments were done on residence time distribution of the gas. Large deviations from plug flow and thus better mixing was seen for all superficial velocities used. However as the velocity increased, system dispersion number became smaller which indicated less mixing and more volume of purging gas. One dimensional numerical simulation of the off-gas concentration in the bed predicted the concentration best at the bottom and middle of the silo while it over-predicted the off-gas concentration in the head-space. The integrated forest biorefinery: a mutation of the P&P industry from paper maker to wood biomass Processor Speaker: Jean Paris, Professor, Chemical Engineering Department, École Polytechnique de Montréal Authors: Jean Paris, Mariya Marinova, Michel Perrier, George Mahmourides The P&P industry has been faced with an inescapable transformation of its traditional markets : a decline of the demand for commodity products, the mainstay of its production and, the coming on line of new large and modern facilities in tropical regions with a fast growing forest and a low labor cost. Simultaneously there is a growing interest from the chemical industries for biomass derived products that can be inserted as drop ins in their conversion process chains. The integrated forest biorefinery which consists of separating and transforming wood components on the site of pulping mills using the pulping process itself and adjunct converting plants in a highly integrated facility can be an effective way to penetrate new markets and generate profits. The conversion of pulping mills into integrated forest biorefineries can be viewed as consisting of four building blocks which can be implemented following different pathways. They are briefly described below. Conversion of the pulp line into new fiber based products making. R&D work is being done bio-sensitive paper, security paper with embedded codes at manufacturing stage, nanocrystaline cellulose. Dissolving pulp as a feedstock for rayon making, a lower price but large volume commodity, is also a possibility. Extracting and converting wood components into biofuels and bioproducts. The main components of wood, cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin can be extracted at various stages of the pulping process and converted into biofuels and precursor molecules for a large variety of value added bioproducts. There are two large groups of chemicals that can be derived from wood biomass, the sugar (C6 and C5) platform and the phenolic platform. Processes have been developed for the production of ethanol, butanol and other fuels. Energy efficiency enhancement and intensive integration. The addition of biomass partitioning and converting plants will increase the stream and water demand which could lead to increased dependency on fossil fuels. To avoid this outcome, a novel energy efficiency analysis and enhancement methodology has been developed, it is based on a project approach and heuristics. It has been applied to operating Kraft mills and produced remarkable results far superior to current engineering practice. Product delivery at the gate of the biorefinery and insertion into downstream processing chains. Most products made in the biorefinery will be intermediates that will require further transformation in existing plants designed to handle fossil feedstock derived product. They will have to meet