Integrated Thermo-Catalytic Reforming of Forest and Agricultural Residues

摘要

Depletion of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions from the usage of fossil fuels are the major environmental concerns in today's world. Biomass is one such renewable resource which can be converted to solid and liquid biofuels. A novel technology, known as Thermo-Catalytic Reforming (TCR), could be a promising solution to these issues. The TCR technology integrates intermediate pyrolysis with a post-reforming stage to convert biomass into a high quality bio-oil, biochar, and syngas. Although there are several conventional pyrolysis-based bio-oil technologies in various stages of development, the challenge with most of these bio-oils is their properties (low pH, high viscosity, immiscibility with hydrocarbons and unstable over time). This process can convert any type of biomass and organic feedstock into a variety of energy products (bio-char, bio-oil and permanent gases) and will help address the challenges with the bio-oil produced from conventional pyrolysis. In this study, the experiments are carried out using various Canadian biomass feedstocks such as wood, corn stover and wheat straw in a 2 kg/h laboratory scale TCR plant. The pelletized feedstock is fed through the hopper and pyrolysed in a screw reactor. The products are then passed through a catalytic reformer, where the produced bio-char acts as a catalyst to aid in the production of gases and bio-oil. The effect of reformer temperature and feedstock composition on the product yield and quality will be studied. The composition of the produced bio-oil and the gas products is analyzed in GC-MS and micro GC respectively. The bio-char is characterized using SEM, BET surface analyzer and Raman spectroscopy. In addition, the results are reported in terms of mass and energy balance of TCR.