Continuous Hydrothermal Co-liquefaction of Biomass : An experimental study on the effects of fuel mixing on the composition and yield of biocrude and hydrochar

An experimental study on the effect of fuel mixing on the products resulting from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) was conducted. The feedstocks used were kraft lignin (KL), GROT (GT) and microalgae cultivated in wastewater (MA). Three sets of mixtures were prepared, each containing two types of feedstocks with a 1:1 ratio: KLGT, MAKL, and MAGT. The experiments were performed using a pilot-scale continuous HTL-system. Elemental analysis CHNO and thermogravimetric analysis were used to determine the ultimate and proximate composition of the samples. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) was used to further analyse the elemental distribution on the hydrochars’ surface. The co-liquefaction effect (CE) was evaluated by comparing the experimental results found for the mixtures with the theoretical values calculated as the average of the respective pure components. The results showed that the yield of light oil was not significantly affected for any mixture. However, the mixtures containing KL showed a lower yield of heavy oil than the predicted value, while a higher yield was found for MAGT. All heavy oils had higher carbon content than expected from the predicted values. Every mixture had a significantly larger yield of hydrochar than what was expected. The increased yield of hydrochar for KLGT was insufficient to compensate for the loss of heavy oil and thus the overall product yield was decrease showing antagonistic interactions in the mixture. The hydrochar from MAGT had the highest ash content, and upon closer inspection with SEM/EDS it showed a much larger phosphorus content than any other hydrochar, even compared to the predicted value. This suggests that an interaction between MA and GROT causes the hydrochar to bind more contaminants and enables it to collect more ash than what would have been achieved from liquefying the components individually. Thus, MAGT showed synergetic effects overall, MAKL had increased carbon recovery but at the cost of heavy oil yield making in a poor choice for HTL, and KLGT showed antagonistic effects in the form of lower yield of biocrude and overall recovery of products. The study highlights that co-liquefaction can potentially have a larger impact on the hydrochar than it does on the biocrude, and that evaluation of hydrochar should be included when examining co-liquefactio