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Physicochemical characteristics and combustion reactivity of reed stalk hydrochar obtained under dilute black liquor condition

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Abstract

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of biomass is a promising technology for generating value-added products. To reduce expenditure of pure water, reed stalk (RS) was hydrothermally treated under dilute black liquor condition. The physicochemical and combustion properties of RS hydrochars were investigated. The results showed that the coalification degree of hydrochar was improved significantly with increasing of hydrothermal temperature and residence time. The upgrading of coalification degree was attributed to the increment of C content and the reduction of the O, H contents of hydrochar under the reactions of dehydration and decarboxylation. With increasing the coalification degree of hydrochar, the HHV and the energy densification of hydrochar increased. And the energy recovery rate of hydrochar decreased due to the reduction of mass yield. The thermogravimetric results revealed that the mean combustion reactivity of hydrochar at the stage of volatile matter combustion was found to decrease with increasing the coalification degree of hydrochar. The relative sensitivities of mean combustion reactivities to heating rate were also associated with the coalification degree of hydrochar. The research showed that the RS could be transformed into value-added fuel by HTC under dilute black liquor condition. It provides an alternative method to reduce expenditure of HTC process water.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51206194) and the Practice Innovation Training Program Projects for the Jiangsu College Students, China (Grant no. 202111276025Z).

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China,51206194,Shuqing Guo,College Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program of Jiangsu Province,202111276025Z,Chen Cheng

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing, 211167, China

    Xiangyuan Dong, Shuqing Guo, Chen Cheng & Yuyang Wu

  2. School of Electric Power Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing, 211167, China

    Shuo Li

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Correspondence to Shuqing Guo.

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Dong, X., Guo, S., Li, S. et al. Physicochemical characteristics and combustion reactivity of reed stalk hydrochar obtained under dilute black liquor condition. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 14, 955–969 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02394-4

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