Open AccessMINIMIZING NET CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS BY OXIDATIVE CO-PYROLYSIS OF COAL/BIOMASS BLENDS
Author(s) -
Robert H. Hurt,
Todd Lang
Publication year - 2001
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/786851
Subject(s) - char , combustion , coal , carbonization , solid fuel , biomass (ecology) , pyrolysis , fossil fuel , carbon dioxide , waste management , heat of combustion , carbon fibers , environmental science , natural gas , chemistry , materials science , organic chemistry , engineering , oceanography , adsorption , composite number , composite material , geology
Solid fuels vary significantly with respect to the amount of CO{sub 2} directly produced per unit heating value. Elemental carbon is notably worse than other solid fuels in this regard, and since carbon (char) is an intermediate product of the combustion of almost all solid fuels, there is an opportunity to reduce specific CO{sub 2} emissions by reconfiguring processes to avoid char combustion wholly or in part. The primary goal of this one-year Innovative Concepts project is to make a fundamental thermodynamic assessment of three modes of solid fuel use: (1) combustion, (2) carbonization, and (3) oxidative pyrolysis, for a wide range of coal and alternative solid fuels. This period a large set of thermodynamic calculations were carried out to assess the potential of the three processes. The results show that the net carbon dioxide emissions and the relative ranking of the different processes depends greatly on the particular baseline fossil fuel being displaced by the new technology. As an example, in a baseline natural gas environment, it is thermodynamically more advantageous to carbonize biomass than to combust it, and even more advantageous to oxidatively pyrolyze the biomass