Direct Liquefaction of Biocoals and Similar Biomass

DGMK-Tagung “Konversion von Biomassen und Kohlen”
9.-11. Mai 2016 in Rotenburg a.d.F.
Direct Liquefaction of Biocoals and Similar Biomass Reactants
A. Löwe*, M. Trautmann*, Collins Ndibe**, Jörg Maier**, Günter Scheffknecht**, Y. Traa*
*Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Stuttgart, Germany
**Institute of Combustion and Power Plant Technology, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Abstract
Direct coal liquefaction (DCL) is the catalytic conversion of coal by hydrogen at high temperatures in presence of solvent and usually catalyst and can be used to produce fuels. Since
some biomass reactants have structures similar to that of lignite, which is a good reactant for
DCL, it is interesting to also investigate the direct liquefaction of different biomass reactants.
We tested biocoals produced by hydrothermal carbonization (Suncoal,a and Suncoal,b) and
by torrefaction (Torrefied Straw300 and Torrefied Poplar280) and different lignin samples
(Lignin,S1 and Lignin,S3). Figure 1 shows a van Krevelen plot with the elemental
composition of fossil fuels and in red the biomass reactants used. With a small amount of a
nanostructured Ni/TiO2 catalyst, highest oil yields were obtained with the Lignin,S3 sample.
The obtained biooils have low oxygen contents and high calorific values. The contribution
will elucidate possible reasons for the different performance of the reactants.
Figure 1: Van Krevelen plot of fossil fuels and reactants obtained from biomass (in red).

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