Hybrid thermochemical and biochemical conversion of biomass for renewable fuels and products

全球煤炭和液体燃料的日消耗量分别为1500万吨和9000万桶。可再生燃料占液体燃料需求的不到0.1%。加拿大交通运输部门产生的温室气体占该国温室气体排放量的40%以上。自2014年起，安大略省已经停止在其火力发电厂使用煤炭。加拿大也在2010年实施了5%乙醇混合的联邦规定。在世界范围内，没有商业上可行的可再生燃料生产，对这种过程的需求是巨大的。目前的乙醇生产使用来自粮食作物的糖和淀粉，这些作物与粮食生产竞争土地。第二代液体生物燃料来源于木质纤维素生物质，包括农业残留物、林业废弃物、草和树木生物质，可以成为化石油的可持续替代品。然而，原料成本占乙醇生产总成本的60-75%。因此，根据以往的经验和记录，拟议的研究项目旨在开发一种综合生物精炼厂方法，该方法采用一系列创新技术，将湿的和低价值的生物质原料（农业废弃物、温室葡萄藤、城市绿色垃圾箱收集物、动物粪便等）转化为生物碳（潜在的煤炭替代品）、可再生液体燃料乙醇（潜在的石油替代品）和其他增值产品。这种从每一副产物中回收价值的新方法整合了：(a)用于固体生物碳生产的热液碳化（HTC）和作为湿生物质副产物的HTC工艺水（PW）；(b)化学循环气化（CLG）用于生产富h2合成气，并使用HTC生物碳在过程中捕获二氧化碳；(c)厌氧消化（AD），然后干重整（DRM）从PW生产合成气；(d)超临界水气化（SCWG）以PW生产合成气；以及(e)将(b)、(c)和(d)过程产生的合成气转化为液体燃料（乙醇）和其他增值生物产品的发酵过程。这些目标将通过开展新项目来解决技术特定的实际问题，并通过研究生的参与来推进最先进的技术来实现。具体的技术贡献是：(i)用于发展连续流动HTC反应器的创新生物质供料系统；将HTC PW氧化结合起来以开发自热HTC反应器和使用AD系统生物降解PW的方法；（iii） HTC加工碳收率的两步动力学建模；整合和测试水化系统，并使用HTC生物碳作为燃料，以研究新型5 kW-Pilot CLG系统中的吸附剂特性；（iv）通过开发创新的供气和乙醇萃取系统来增强水溶液中合成气的传质。

The daily global coal and liquid fuel consumption are 15 million tonnes and 90 million barrels, respectively. Renewable fuels account for less than 0.1% of the liquid fuel demand. The Canadian transportation sector produces more than 40% of the country's greenhouse gases (GHG). Ontario has discontinued coal usage in its thermal power plants as of 2014. Canada has also implemented a federal mandate of 5% ethanol blending in 2010. Worldwide, there is no commercially viable drop-in renewable fuel production and the demand for such a process is immense. Current ethanol production uses sugars and starches from food crops which compete for land with food production. Second-generation liquid biofuels derived from lignocellulose biomass including agricultural residues, forestry waste, grasses and tree biomass can be a sustainable alternative to fossil oil. However, feedstock costs are 60-75% of the overall ethanol production cost. Therefore, building on previous experience and track record, the proposed research program aims at developing an integrated bio-refinery approach that employs an array of innovative technologies to convert wet and low-value biomass feedstocks (agricultural wastes, greenhouse vines, municipal green bin collections, animal manure, etc.) into biocarbon (potential substitute for coal), renewable liquid fuel ethanol (potential substitute for petroleum) and other value added products. This novel approach, where value is recovered from every co-product, integrates: (a) Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) for solid bio-carbon production and HTC process water (PW) as co-product from wet biomass; (b) Chemical looping gasification (CLG) for H2-enriched syngas production with in-process CO2 capture using the HTC bio-carbon; (c) Anaerobic digestion (AD) followed by dry reforming (DRM) to produce syngas from PW; (d) Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) to produce syngas from PW; and (e) Fermentation process that converts the syngas produced from processes (b), (c), and (d) into liquid fuel (ethanol) and other value-added bio-products. These objectives will be achieved by undertaking new projects to resolve a technology-specific practical problem, and advances the state-of-the-art by involving graduate students. The technology-specific contributions are: (i) An innovative biomass feeding system for development of a continuous flow HTC reactor; (ii) An approach to integrating HTC PW oxidation for development of an autothermal HTC reactor and biological degradation of PW using an AD system; (iii) Two-step kinetic modeling on carbon yield in HTC processing; (iv) Integration and testing of a hydration system and the use of HTC biocarbon as the fuel to study sorbent (CaO) characteristics in a novel 5 kW-Pilot CLG system; and (iv) Mass transfer enhancement of syngas in aqueous solution by developing innovative gas supply and ethanol extraction systems.