Presentations

In the SUNFUEL project, the dissolution and subsequent reaction of real biomass feedstocks in this high-temperature environment, the optimization of a reactor design for biofuel production, and testing the fuel products for combustion properties are studied. Initial results of the SUNFUEL project, i.e., vibrational spectroscopic data from a hydrothermal diamond-anvil cell (HDAC) and information obtained from studies using a small-scale continuous flow reactor, are presented. In this first stage of the project, pinewood and pinewood waste were considered as the feedstock. This feedstock is of considerable interest because large quantities of mountain pine beetle-infested lodgepole pine from Western Canada may be available as a feedstock for fuel production. The dissolution of biomass can be conveniently visualised using a hydrothermal diamond-anvil cell. Initial results on the application of vibrational spectroscopy using the HDAC to study the fundamental processes involved in the dissolution of biomass and in its transformations into bio-oil and gases are presented. Data from experiments employing a small-scale continuous flow reactor are also presented. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE 2010 Spring National Meeting (San Antonio, TX 3/21-25/2010).