(598c) Surfactant Assisted Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Corn Stover

Worldwide, as corn crop yield is more than 1 bty, significant amount of corn stover feedstock is available globally. In this study, we investigated hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of corn stover at 250°C and 800-1000 psi (system autogenous pressure) in presence of ionic and non-ionic surfactant. Presence of a surfactant is known to change the wettability, reduce the hydrophilicity of particles and increase interfacial surface area, which can influence characteristics of hydrochar as well as distribution of liquified products, mainly the C1-C3 carboxylic acids. HTL process resulted in product gas, aqueous biocrude, heavy bio-oil (HBO) and solid char. The biocrude was characterized by TOC analyzer and gas-chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to understand extent of liquefied carbon and oxygenated hydrocarbons, respectively. Both solid char and HBO were analyzed by the elemental analyzer and HHVs were estimated based on C, H, N and O content. Yield and quality of the products generated from corn stover feedstock will be presented to understand the effect of surfactants during HTL processing.