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Rice husk pyrolysis polygeneration of levoglucosan-rich bio-oil and functional bio-char: roles of hydrothermal pretreatment and acidic hydrothermal pretreatment on products

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Abstract 

Positive roles of hydrothermal pretreatment and acidic hydrothermal pretreatment were researched in this study. Results of pyrolysis indicated that hydrothermal pretreatment not only significantly enriched levoglucosan (LG) content in bio-oil, but also increased specific surface area of bio-char. When acid was introduced into hydrothermal pretreatment process, the top-quality liquid and solid products acquired at a relatively low pretreatment temperature. For bio-oil, the LG content increased from 0% in rice husk (RH) to 32.68% in the sample hydrothermal pretreated in deionized water at 170 ℃ (TRH170). The highest LG content of 43.0% obtained from the sample hydrothermal pretreated in phosphoric acid solution at 115 ℃ (PTRH115). The BET of bio-char after activation increased from 2135.6 m2/g in RH to 2508.3 m2/g in TRH170. And acid addition optimized the pore distribution of activated bio-char. Both of the average pore size and efficient pore volume in micro-pore section were noticeably increased.

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Abbreviations

AAEMs:

Alkali and alkaline earth metals

AC:

Activated bio-char

HHV:

High heat value

HP:

Hydrothermal pretreatment

LG:

Levoglucosan

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation for Youth Scholar of China [grant number 52206237], the National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant number 2019YFD1100602], the Natural Science Foundation for Youth Scholar of Jiangsu Province [grant number BK20220838], and the Postdoctoral Research start-up fund of Southeast University [grant number 1103002214] and Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Mei Jiang, Yinhai Su, Penggang Qi & Yuanquan Xiong

  2. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Shuping Zhang

  3. Jiangxi Jinkang Advanded Material Sci-Tech Co., Ltd, Taihe, 343700, China

    Yuanquan Xiong

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  1. Mei Jiang
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Contributions

Mei Jiang: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft; Yinhai Su: supervision, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition; Penggang Qi: experimentation; Shuping Zhang: writing—review and editing; Yuanquan Xiong: supervision, funding acquisition.

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Jiang, M., Su, Y., Qi, P. et al. Rice husk pyrolysis polygeneration of levoglucosan-rich bio-oil and functional bio-char: roles of hydrothermal pretreatment and acidic hydrothermal pretreatment on products. Biomass Conv. Bioref. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-023-03793-x

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