Hydrothermal carbonization of the tropical biomass

Abstract

Hydrothermal carbonization is a promising method of thermochemical treatment, which allows wet biomass conversion into hydrochar; a brittle, solid and high heating value product. During this process the biomass is held at the temperature of the 180-250 ºC with a certain amount of water in the closed system for several hours. This process increases biomass hydrophobicity, lowers moisture content, increases density and heating value. These improved properties provide with extended variety of applications, such as fuel, adsorbent, and catalysts.

Even though it is abundant, tropical biomass is not yet widely used for modern, high efficiency energy purposes. New opportunities could be found after improving of its characteristics by pre-treatment, such as hydrothermal carbonization. This work is dedicated to carrying out of hydrothermal carbonization processes and analyzing HTC products of some tropical biomass, such as eucalyptus, coffee wood, coffee cherry parchment and bamboo. In addition, an examination of the influence of different temperatures on the properties of the hydrochars is made.