(592b) Synergistic Effects on Co-Hydrothermal Liquefaction of High Ash Corn Stover and Halogenated Plastic

Agricultural residues can be thermally processed through a variety of methods to produce bio-oil or bio-crude that can be upgraded to chemical and drop-in biofuels or even combined in a traditional refinery. Corn Stover is considered as one of the key lignocellulosic feedstocks for biofuels production. One promising method of biomass conversion is hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), where lignocellulose residues are broken down in water at high temperature and pressure to produce a bio-crude oil. Additionally, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is the major halogen source in municipal solid waste and its recycling is problematic. Hydrothermal treatment has been proposed to be an effective method to dehalogenation of PVC, since hydrochloric acid is solubilized in subcritical water and act as a catalyst to enhance the biomass degradation as well as solubilizing inorganics from biomass. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the co-hydrothermal liquefaction (co-HTL) of PVC with high-ash corn stover in subcritical water (280-350 °C). Our intention was to derive a paramount benefit from the catalytic effect of HCl on the yield instead of using additional catalysts. In this work, the effects of blending ratio of PVC/CS (0.05 – 0.25) and reaction time (30 and 60 min) on the biocrude yield and quality are evaluated through ultimate analysis, proximate analysis, gas chromatography mass spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Our results indicate that synergistic effects can be observed by co-HTL in terms of biocrude yield and quality in compared to HTL of standalone feedstocks.