Guanyi Chen

Biodiesel production process from microalgae oil by waste heat recovery and process integration

In this work, the optimization of microalgae oil (MO) based biodiesel production process is carried out by waste heat recovery and process integration. The exergy analysis of each heat exchanger presented an efficient heat coupling between hot and cold streams, thus minimizing the total exergy destruction. Simulation results showed that the unit production cost of optimized process is 0.592

Sub-supercritical liquefaction of rice stalk for the production of bio-oil: effect of solvents.

/L biodiesel, and approximately 0.172

Steam gasification of acid-hydrolysis biomass CAHR for clean syngas production

/L biodiesel can be avoided by heat integration. Although the capital cost of the optimized biodiesel production process increased 32.5% and 23.5% compared to the reference cases, the operational cost can be reduced by approximately 22.5% and 41.6%.

Comparison of kinetic analysis methods in thermal decomposition of cattle manure by themogravimetric analysis

The effect of solvents (water and ethanol) on liquefaction characteristics of rice stalk (RS) was investigated in an autoclave. The highest conversion and liquid yield in water and ethanol were 84.95 wt%, 72.62 wt% and 78.93wt%, 63.84 wt%, respectively. FTIR and GC-MS of the bio-oils obtained from subcritical water (SubH2O, 300°C) and supercritical ethanol (scEtOH, 300°C) indicated that the behavior of RS liquefaction depended on solvents used. The major components of bio-oil produced in SubH2O were ketones and phenols, while esters and phenols dominated in scEtOH. ICP-OES analysis showed that the concentrations of potassium (K) and sodium (Na) in the bio-oil obtained from scEtOH were 14-15 times higher than that obtained from SubH2O. Ethanol gave rise to an improvement in the bio-oil properties including water content, density, acidity and HHV. It was concluded that the bio-oil from RS can be effectively upgraded in scEtOH.

Supercritical water pyrolysis of sewage sludge

Main characteristics of gaseous product from steam gasification of acid-hydrolysis biomass CAHR have been investigated experimentally. The comparison in terms of evolution of syngas flow rate, syngas quality and apparent thermal efficiency was made between steam gasification and pyrolysis in the lab-scale apparatus. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of temperature and steam to CAHR ratio on gas quality, syngas yield and energy conversion. The results showed that syngas and energy yield were better with gasification compared to pyrolysis under identical thermal conditions. Both high gasification temperature and introduction of proper steam led to higher gas quality, higher syngas yield and higher energy conversion efficiency. However, excessive steam reduced hydrogen yield and energy conversion efficiency. The optimal value of S/B was found to be 3.3. The maximum value of energy ratio was 0.855 at 800°C with the optimal S/B value.

Hydrogen production by aqueous-phase reforming of ethylene glycol over a Ni/Zn/Al derived hydrotalcite catalyst

The thermogravimetric (TG) experiments of cattle manure were carried out from room temperature to 900°C at five different heating rates (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50°C/min) and the kinetics of the main decomposition process were analyzed with different methods. TG curves indicate that the major decomposition process of cattle manure could be roughly divided into three stages. The average activation energy of each stage calculated by Coats-Redfern method are 68.95, 2.63 and 55.32kJ/mol respectively. The kinetic parameters given by Distributed Activation Energy Model method, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method and Vyazovkin method are all show that the activation energies keep stable (at around 122.4, 126 and 123.8kJ/mol respectively) under 60% conversion degree and then changed dramatically (ranging from 129.9 to 454.9kJ/mol). Power law (P3) was determined as an appropriate reaction mechanism using master-plots method. The kinetic parameters calculated by Vyazovkin method can give the best agreement with the experimental results.

Air gasification of biogas-derived digestate in a downdraft fixed bed gasifier

Municipal sewage sludge (SS) from wastewater treatment plant containing high water content (>85wt.%), lead to the difficulty of co-combustion with MSW or coal due to the high cost of drying. This study explores an alternative method by supercritical water (SCW) pyrolysis of sewage sludge (SS) in a high pressure reaction vessel. The effects of temperature and moisture content of SS on yield and composition of the products (bio-oil, bio char and non-condensable gas) were studied. A temperature of 385°C and moisture content of 85wt.% were found to be the optimum conditions for the maximum bio-oil production of 37.23wt.%, with a higher heating value of 31.08MJ/kg. In the optimum condition, the yields of aliphatic hydrocarbon and phenols were about 29.23wt.% and 12.51wt.%, respectively. The physical and chemical properties of bio-char were analyzed by using XRF and BET. Results of GC analyses of NCG showed that it has the maximum HHV of 13.39MJ/m3 at 445°C and moisture content of 85wt.%. The reaction path from SS to bio-oil through SCW pyrolysis was given. Moreover, carbon balance was calculated for the optimal condition, and finding out that 64.27wt.% of the carbon content was transferred from SS to bio-oil. Finally, this work demonstrates that the SCW pyrolysis is a promising disposal method for SS.

Isolation and characterization of microalgae for biodiesel production from seawater.

Ni/Zn/Al hydrotalcites (Ni/Zn/Al-HT) with different Ni/Zn ratios have been prepared by a coprecipitation method. The properties and microstructure of Ni/Zn/Al-HT precursors and derived catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), H2-temperature programmed reduction (TPR), N2 physical adsorption analysis (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and particle size distribution. The results exhibited that the as-prepared samples consisted of a hydrotalcite phase and a ZnO phase, and Zn2+ was introduced into the layers. At the ratio of Ni/Zn = 1, the ZnAl2O4 phase emerged after calcination; Ni still remained in its original state after reaction, and ZnO always existed during the whole process. In aqueous-phase reforming (APR) of ethylene glycol, the H2 production rate over Ni/Zn/Al-HT was high, and the selectivity of H2 can almost reach 100% with a high conversion rate exceeding 99%.

Contamination source apportionment and health risk assessment of heavy metals in soil around municipal solid waste incinerator: A case study in North China

Digestate is a byproduct from biomass anaerobic digestion process. Gasification of dried digestate to produce gasesous product might be a promising route. In this work, air gasification of digestate with high ash content was performed in a downdraft fixed bed gasifier at temperature varying from 600°C to 800°C and air equivalence ratio (ER) ranging from 0.25 to 0.30. The ash melting properties were firstly detected by the Intelligent Ash Melting Point Test, and the by-products (biochar and ash) were analyzed. The results showed that no ash slagging was observed and therefore it is feasible to operate digestate gasification under 800°C and ER ranging from 0.25 to 0.30. High temperature favored gas production, 800°C is proposed for digestate gasification in the present study. ER with a medium value improved gas quality and cold gas efficiency (CGE), and the optimal LHV of 4.78MJ/Nm3 and CGE of 67.01% were obtained with ER of 0.28. High ER favored the increase of gas yield and decrease of tar concentration, and the optimal gas yield of 2.15 Nm3/kg and tar concentration of 1.61g/Nm3 were achieved with ER of 0.30. Improved molar ratio of H2/CO varying from 1.03 to 1.08 was obtained at 800°C, indicating gaseous product has the potential for chemical synthesis processes (1

Photosynthetic hydrogen production by alginate immobilized bacterial consortium

As green marine microalgae isolated from local seawater in Tianjin, China, Nannochloropsis gaditana Q6 was tolerant to the variation of salinity with the highest biomass and lipid concentration in natural seawater medium. Although this strain could grow mixotrophically with glycerol, the narrow gap between mixotrophic and autotrophic cultivation suggested that autotrophic cultivation was the optimal trophic type for N. gaditana Q6 growth. In addition, strain Q6 was more sensitive to the variance of NH4HCO3 concentration than NaH2PO4 concentration. Consequently, the lipid production could be maximized by the two-stage cultivation strategy, with an initial high NH4HCO3 concentration for biomass production followed by low NH4HCO3 concentration for lipid accumulation.