(663a) Design, Fabrication, Testing, and Operation of a Continuous Reactor for Hydrothermal Carbonization
AIChE Annual Meeting
2017
2017 Annual Meeting
2017 International Congress on Energy
Hydrothermal Carbonization
Thursday, November 2, 2017 - 8:10am to 8:30am
Although HTC offers a relatively simple and straightforward solution to process diverse biomass feedstocks, the requirements of high pressure and high temperature make the process complex and potentially costly to design and operate. The lab-scale batch process has already been demonstrated in various laboratories around the world, but batch process is not cost-effective for industrial-scale deployment. A continuous process offers a relatively small footprint, energy recovery and efficiency, and notably, economies of scale.
In this study, a bench-scale continuous HTC reactor system has been designed, constructed, commissioned, and operated with cellulose and with whole biomass feedstocks. The maximum temperature and pressure of the reactor are 250 °C and 40 bar. The throughput of the reactor system was maintained at 0.3 L/min with solids loading of ~5%, while the reaction time was maintained at 5 min. The basic reactor configuration is a section of straight pipe, and numerous engineering challenges were encountered during design and commissioning. The primary challenges are related to instrumentation durability, temperature control, and flow control.
Results are presented for hydrothermal conversion of microcrystalline cellulose. Both solid and liquid products were tested for their physico-chemical properties and compared with the corresponding products from batch process generated in a 2L batch Parr reactor. It was found that temperature and pressure were stable during operation and products are relatively similar to that of batch process. Similar results were found for HTC of cow manure, when comparing solid yield, char fuel value and total organic content in the aqueous phase, when corrected for water volume.