Development and test of a reaction system for direct liquefaction of biomass in hydrothermal media

Hydrothermal liquefaction is a promising technology for converting plant biomass directly to liquid fuels with better fuel properties compared to traditional fast pyrolsyis. The technology employs water, in subcritical conditions as reaction media, and therefore is very suitable for wet biomass feedstock including agricultural waste. It can also be employed to pre-treat plant biomass for bio-ethanol production. However, the conversion efficiency and selectivity of the techology need to be improved. One way to meet the needs is to apply the concept of process intensification with regards to reactor design. By miniturization of the reactor size, apart from other benefits, heat and mass transfer within the reactor can significantly be improved, which in turn help improve the conversion efficiency and selectivity of the process. In this project, a semi continuous flow fixed bed reactor system was designed and developed. In addition, the system was used to experimentally assess the use of hydrothermal media for dissolution of woody biomass. This project is just the initial step in the development of a two steps liquefaction process for aimed to obtain of bio-oils from bio-material.