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Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL)

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a process that converts biomass into liquid biofuel under high pressure and temperature. It occurs between 280-370°C and 10-25 MPa with water and catalysts. The biomass is broken down and reformed into bio-crude oil with a high energy content. The water acts as both a reactant and catalyst, allowing biomass components like carbohydrates, lignin, and proteins to break into smaller molecules through reactions like depolymerization and decarboxylation. This results in a bio-crude oil similar to petroleum that can be upgraded into fuels. HTL has benefits like a high energy efficiency and production of a stable biofuel with low oxygen

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101 views

Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL)

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a process that converts biomass into liquid biofuel under high pressure and temperature. It occurs between 280-370°C and 10-25 MPa with water and catalysts. The biomass is broken down and reformed into bio-crude oil with a high energy content. The water acts as both a reactant and catalyst, allowing biomass components like carbohydrates, lignin, and proteins to break into smaller molecules through reactions like depolymerization and decarboxylation. This results in a bio-crude oil similar to petroleum that can be upgraded into fuels. HTL has benefits like a high energy efficiency and production of a stable biofuel with low oxygen

Uploaded by

Syahmi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HYDROTHERMAL LIQUEFACTION

(HTL)
FUNDAMENTAL OF HTL

• Is generally carried out at 280-370 ⁰C and between 10 and 25 MPa and residence
times between 5-30 min with the presence of water and perhaps some catalysts,
to directly convert biomass into liquid crude oil
• The temperature is sufficient to initiate pyrolytic mechanisms in biopolymers
while the pressure is sufficient to maintain a liquid water processing phase
• Water simultaneously acts as, reactant and catalyst, and this makes the process
significantly different from pyrolysis
• At these temperatures and pressures, water becomes a highly reactive medium
promoting the breakdown and cleavage of chemical bonds, allowing for the
reformation of biological molecules
• Biomass slurry fed at pumpable concentrations, typically 5–35% dry solids into
the reactor
FUNDAMENTAL OF HTL
• Water is also beneficial as a reaction medium since the newly formed
bio-crude oil self-separates after conversion.
• The aqueous medium also eliminates the need dry the incoming
feedstock, bypassing resource and energy intensive preprocessing
steps .
• These factors combine to make liquefaction a more expensive
process; however, crude oil obtained contains less oxygen which has a
much higher energy content than syngas or alcohol.
Chemistry During Hydrothermal Liquefaction
• The ability to convert such a wide range of feedstocks under hydrothermal
conditions is due to the fundamental biological building blocks that are broken
down and reformed during the process.
• Depending on the feedstock, waste biomass is composed of varying ratios of
macromolecules including carbohydrates (cellulose and starch), lignin, lipids, and
proteins.
• Initially, these macromolecules are broken down into their monomer units.
• As the hydrothermal liquefaction process continues, the monomer units are
further cleaved and broken into smaller fragment molecules.
• During fragmentation, the goal is to remove oxygen and other heteroatoms (e.g.
nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorous), leaving behind the initial carbon and hydrogen
atoms in the form of low molecular weight compounds.
• This process maximizes the energy content of the biocrude oil and increases the
value and ability to refine the final product.
Chemistry During Hydrothermal Liquefaction
• The changes during the liquefaction process involve all kinds of
processes such as solvolysis, depolymerization, decarboxylation,
hydrogenolysis, and hydrogenation.
• Solvolysis results in micellar-like substructures of the biomass.
• The depolymerisation of biomass leads to smaller molecules.
• New molecular rearrangements through dehydration and
decarboxylation.
• In the presence of hydrogen hydrogenolysis and hydrogenation of
functional groups, such as hydroxyl groups, carboxyl groups, and keto
groups also occur
Bio Crude Oil
• Depending on the feedstock, the resulting bio-crude oil can have a
heating value comparable to bunker crude oil (30-40 MJ/kg) and can
be burned in boilers or upgraded and refined into higher value fuel or
chemical compounds.
• Biocrude is similar to petroleum crude and can be upgraded to the
whole distillate range of petroleum derived fuel products
• the biocrude is much more viscous, but is actually less dense than
bio-oil from pyrolysis
• The biocrude products included acids, alcohols, cyclic ketones,
phenols, methoxy-phenols (guaiacols from softwood lignin) and more
condensed structures, like naphthols and benzofurans
HTL BENEFITS
• Crude HTL oil has high heating values of approximately 35-39 MJ/kg on a dry ash
free basis
• The HTL process only consumes approximately 10-15% of the energy in the
feedstock biomass, yielding an energy efficiency of 85-90%
• Crude HTL oil has very low oxygen, sulphur and water content (compared to e.g.
pyrolysis oil which typically contains approx. 50% water)
• HTL oil recovers more than 70% of the feedstock carbon content (single pass)
• HTL oil is storage stable, and has comparatively low upgrading requirements, due
in part to a high fraction of middle distillates in the crude oil. It is much less
upgrading intensive than e.g. pyrolysis oil, which needs immediate upgrading in
order not to deteriorate.
• The bio crude oil from HTL can be used as-produced in heavy engines or it can be
hydrogenated or thermally upgraded to obtain diesel-, gasoline- or jet-fuels by
existing refinery technology.
Feedstocks, reaction conditions, and products for the HTL process
Representatives for the products from the HTL process
Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzSdt-pGNkg
References
• http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/au-hl020613.php
• http://algae.illinois.edu/projects/Hydrothermal.html
• Ayhan Demirbas, Biofuels: Securing the Planet’s Future Energy Needs,
Springer Science & Business Media, 2008
• Vijai Kumar Gupta, Maria G. Tuohy, Biofuel Technologies: Recent
Developments, Springer Science & Business Media, 2013

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