Antonio Molino

Steam gasification of refuse-derived fuel in a rotary kiln pilot plant: Experimental tests

Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) steam gasification tests were performed in a rotary kiln pilot plant. The gas features were evaluated by varying the feeding ratio (FR), in the range 0.4-2.67, at a constant temperature equal to 850 °C. Several experimental tests were carried out in order to evaluate the best values for the main operating variables: kiln temperature, gas and solid residence time, etc., before evaluating the effect of the FR increase on the gas energy content and composition. Results show that the gas energy content decreases as the FR increases and, in the range of the FR studied, it achieves the maximum for FR=0.4, which corresponds to a volumetric gas composition of H2=59.1 %vv, CO=16.8 %v/v, CO2=20.1 %v/v, CH4=3 %v/v (not considering N2) and the highest lower heating value (LHV) equal to 16 MJ kggas -1 is obtained.

Extraction of astaxanthin from microalga Haematococcus pluvialis in red phase by using generally recognized as safe solvents and accelerated extraction

Solvent Extraction was tested to extract astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis in red phase (HPR), by investigating effects of solvents, extraction pressure and temperature. Astaxanthin isomers were identified and quantified in the extract. The performances of acetone and ethanol, Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) solvents, were explored. Negligible effect of pressure was found, while with increasing extraction temperature astaxanthin recovery increased till a maximum value, beyond which thermal degradation seemed to be greater than the positive effect of temperature on extraction. Furthermore, to maximize the extraction yield of astaxanthin, mechanical pre-treatment of HPR biomass was carried out and several extraction runs were consecutively performed. Experimental results showed that after the mechanical pre-treatment the astaxanthin recovery strongly increased while a single extraction run of 20 min was sufficient to extract more than 99% of total astaxanthin extracted. After pre-treatment, maximum recovery of about 87% was found for acetone (pressure = 100 bar; temperature = 40 °C; total time = 60 min).

Biomethane production by biogas with polymeric membrane module

Abstract Biogas is one of the most important biofuels that can be produced by biomass owing to its simple and consolidated process. Until the past decade it was used for power production, but because of the direction of European Union policy issues that have drawn attention to the possibilities offered by upgrading biogas to biomethane, currently there are the important conditions for the dynamic growth of this industry. The aim of this chapter is to underline the end uses of biogas compared with its upgrade, with a focus on the gains and limitations of using polymeric membranes for biomethane purification.