LAUSR

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) can potentially improve the fuel quality of low-value biomass resources that are otherwise unsuitable for use in industrial heat and power applications. The effect of HTC pretreatment on the combustion and gasification behavior of two agricultural residues (grape marc and sugar cane bagasse) and a freshwater species of macroalgae was investigated, with an emphasis on devolatilization behavior and char reactivity. HTC was carried out in a custom-built, laboratory-scale, batch reactor at three temperatures, 180, 220, and 260 °C, with a slurry density of 15% w/w dry biomass in water. The volatile release behavior of the collected products (hydrochars) and untreated biomass feedstocks were characterized by dynamic thermogravimetric analysis. Char reactivity was characterized by isothermal gasification of samples of the hydrochars and untreated biomass in a thermobalance in carbon dioxide, following fast pyrolysis of the samples in a separate fixed-bed batch reactor. Hydrochars...