Abstract
Hydrothermal conversion is an important thermochemical conversion technique that is used to convert waste biomass into valuable products or biofuel. The process is usually performed in the presence of water at high temperature and high pressures. The biomass is depolymerized to form three phases such as biocrude, biogas, and biocarbon into small components in water. Based on the process conditions (temperature, pressure, catalyst, and time), the yield of the phases varies accordingly. Comparing to other thermochemical conversion techniques like combustion, pyrolysis, and gasification, the hydrothermal conversion is highly appropriate for handling biomass with high moisture content. According to the physicochemical properties of water, the process can be classified as hydrothermal carbonization, hydrothermal liquefaction (at subcritical conditions T, 250–374°C, and P, 4–22 MPa), and hydrothermal gasification (at supercritical conditions T > 374°C and P > 22 MPa). There has been significant research reported on the hydrothermal conversion of lignocellulosic biomasses, algal biomasses, and also co-utilization of these two with other waste materials. The interaction of water with the biomass results in formation of various chemicals like acids, alcohols, cyclic ketones, phenols, and methoxyphenols and more condensed structures like naphthols and benzofurans. This chapter focuses on the influence of the process parameters and types of biomass utilized on the hydrothermal conversion of biomass. Additionally, the use of biomass as not only an energy source but also as a viable source for value-added chemicals is discussed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bhaskar T, Pandey A (2015) Advances in thermochemical conversion of biomass – introduction. In: Pandey A, Bhaskar T, Stcker M, Sukumaran RK (eds) Recent advances in thermo-chemical conversion of biomass. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-63289-0.00001-6
Chen W, Chen Y, Yang H, Xia M, Li K, Chen X, Chen H (2017) Co-pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass and microalgae: products characteristics and interaction effect. Bioresour Technol 245:860–868
Arvindnarayan S, Prabhu KKS, Shobana S, Kumar G, Dharmaraja J (2017) Upgrading of micro algal derived bio-fuels in thermochemical liquefaction path and its perspectives: a review. Int Biodeterior Biodegradation 119:260–272
Chen CY, Yeh KL, Aisyah R, Lee DJ, Chang JS (2011) Cultivation, photobioreactor design and harvesting of microalgae for biodiesel production: a critical review. Bioresour Technol 102(1):71–81
Koppejan J, Van Loo S (2012) The handbook of biomass combustion and co-firing. Routledge, London
Sticklen MB (2008) Plant genetic engineering for biofuel production: towards affordable cellulosic ethanol. Nat Rev Genet 9(6):433
Sørensen I, Pettolino FA, Bacic A, Ralph J, Lu F, O’Neill MA, Fei Z, Rose JK, Domozych DS, Willats WG (2011) The charophycean green algae provide insights into the early origins of plant cell walls. Plant J 68(2):201–211
Zhou X, Li W, Mabon R, Broadbelt LJ (2017) A critical review on hemicellulose pyrolysis. Energ Technol 5(1):52–79
Bajpai P (2016) Structure of lignocellulosic biomass. In: Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel production. Springer, Singapore, pp 7–12
Pettersen RC (1984) The chemical composition of wood. In: The chemistry of solid wood, vol 207. US Department of Agriculture, Forest service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, pp 57–126
Fowden L (1954) A comparison of the compositions of some algal proteins. Ann Bot 18(3):257–266
Markou G, Angelidaki I, Georgakakis D (2012) Microalgal carbohydrates: an overview of the factors influencing carbohydrates production, and of main bioconversion technologies for production of biofuels. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 96(3):631–645
Yao L, Gerde JA, Lee SL, Wang T, Harrata KA (2015) Microalgae lipid characterization. J Agric Food Chem 63(6):1773–1787
Kruse A, Funke A, Titirici MM (2013) Hydrothermal conversion of biomass to fuels and energetic materials. Curr Opin Chem Biol 17(3):515–521
He C, Giannis A, Wang JY (2013) Conversion of sewage sludge to clean solid fuel using hydrothermal carbonization: hydrochar fuel characteristics and combustion behavior. Appl Energy 111:257–266
Zhang S, Zhu X, Zhou S, Shang H, Luo J, Tsang DC (2019) Hydrothermal carbonization for hydrochar production and its application. In: Biochar from biomass and waste. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 275–294
Libra JA, Ro KS, Kammann C, Funke A, Berge ND, Neubauer Y, Titirici MM, Fühner C, Bens O, Kern J, Emmerich KH (2011) Hydrothermal carbonization of biomass residuals: a comparative review of the chemistry, processes and applications of wet and dry pyrolysis. Biofuels 2(1):71–106
Funke A, Ziegler F (2010) Hydrothermal carbonization of biomass: a summary and discussion of chemical mechanisms for process engineering. Biofuels Bioprod Biorefin 4(2):160–177
Huang HJ, Yuan XZ (2015) Recent progress in the direct liquefaction of typical biomass. Prog Energy Combust Sci 49:59–80
Eboibi BEO, Lewis DM, Ashman PJ, Chinnasamy S (2014) Hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae for biocrude production: improving the biocrude properties with vacuum distillation. Bioresour Technol 174:212–221
Jin F, Enomoto H (2011) Rapid and highly selective conversion of biomass into value-added products in hydrothermal conditions: chemistry of acid/base-catalysed and oxidation reactions. Energy Environ Sci 4(2):382–397
Chopra J, Mahesh D, Yerrayya A, Vinu R, Kumar R, Sen R (2019) Performance enhancement of hydrothermal liquefaction for strategic and sustainable valorization of de-oiled yeast biomass into green bio-crude. J Clean Prod 227:292–301
Haiduc AG, Brandenberger M, Suquet S, Vogel F, Bernier-Latmani R, Ludwig C (2009) Sun CHem: an integrated process for the hydrothermal production of methane from microalgae and CO2 mitigation. J Appl Phycol 21(5):529–541
Paida VR, Brilman DWF, Kersten SRA (2019) Hydrothermal gasification of sorbitol: H2 optimisation at high carbon gasification efficiencies. Chem Eng J 358:351–361
Matsumura Y (2015) Hydrothermal gasification of biomass. In: Recent advances in thermo-chemical conversion of biomass. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 251–267
Yin S, Tan Z (2012) Hydrothermal liquefaction of cellulose to biocrude under acidic, neutral and alkaline conditions. Appl Energy 92:234–239
Mok WSL, Antal Jr MJ (1992) Uncatalyzed solvolysis of whole biomass hemicellulose by hot compressed liquid water. Ind Eng Chem Res 31(4):1157–1161
Sasaki M, Hayakawa T, Arai K, Adschiri T (2003) Measurement of the rate of retro-aldol condensation of D-xylose in subcritical and supercritical water. In: Hydrothermal reactions and techniques. World Scientific Publishing, Singapore, pp 169–176
Kanetake T, Sasaki M, Goto M (2007) Decomposition of a lignin model compound under hydrothermal conditions. Chem Eng Technol 30(8):1113–1122
Zhang B, Huang HJ, Ramaswamy S (2007) Reaction kinetics of the hydrothermal treatment of lignin. In: Biotechnology for fuels and chemicals. Humana Press, Clifton, pp 487–499
Takeuchi Y, Jin F, Tohji K, Enomoto H (2008) Acid catalytic hydrothermal conversion of carbohydrate biomass into useful substances. J Mater Sci 43(7):2472–2475
Shi F, Wang P, Duan Y, Link D, Morreale B (2012) Recent developments in the production of liquid fuels via catalytic conversion of microalgae: experiments and simulations. RSC Adv 2(26):9727–9747
Tang S, Shi Z, Tang X, Yang X (2019) Hydrotreatment of biocrudes derived from hydrothermal liquefaction and lipid extraction of the high-lipid Scenedesmus. Green Chem 21(12):3413–3423
Tungal R, Shende RV (2014) Hydrothermal liquefaction of pinewood (Pinus ponderosa) for H2, biocrude and biocrude generation. Appl Energy 134:401–412
Cengiz NÜ, Eren S, Sağlam M, Yüksel M, Ballice L (2016) Influence of temperature and pressure on hydrogen and methane production in the hydrothermal gasification of wood residues. J Supercrit Fluids 107:243–249
Cheng S, D’cruz I, Wang M, Leitch M, Xu C (2010) Highly efficient liquefaction of woody biomass in hot-compressed alcohol − water co-solvents. Energy Fuel 24(9):4659–4667
de Caprariis B, Bavasso I, Bracciale MP, Damizia M, De Filippis P, Scarsella M (2019) Enhanced bio-crude yield and quality by reductive hydrothermal liquefaction of oak wood biomass: effect of iron addition. J Anal Appl Pyrolysis 139:123–130
Alper K, Tekin K, Karagöz S (2019) Hydrothermal liquefaction of lignocellulosic biomass using potassium fluoride-doped alumina. Energy Fuel 33(4):3248–3256
Liu Y, Yao S, Wang Y, Lu H, Brar SK, Yang S (2017) Bio-and hydrochars from rice straw and pig manure: inter-comparison. Bioresour Technol 235:332–337
Yuan XZ, Li H, Zeng GM, Tong JY, Xie W (2007) Sub-and supercritical liquefaction of rice straw in the presence of ethanol–water and 2-propanol–water mixture. Energy 32(11):2081–2088
Küçük MM, Ağırtaş S (1999) Liquefaction of Prangmites australis by supercritical gas extraction. Bioresour Technol 69(2):141–143
Khampuang K, Boreriboon N, Prasassarakich P (2015) Alkali catalyzed liquefaction of corncob in supercritical ethanol–water. Biomass Bioenergy 83:460–466
Çağlar A, Demirbaş A (2001) Conversion of cotton cocoon shell to liquid products by supercritical fluid extraction and low pressure pyrolysis in the presence of alkalis. Energy Convers Manag 42(9):1095–1104
Saber M, Golzary A, Hosseinpour M, Takahashi F, Yoshikawa K (2016) Catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae using nanocatalyst. Appl Energy 183:566–576
Yang W, Li X, Liu S, Feng L (2014) Direct hydrothermal liquefaction of undried macroalgae Enteromorpha prolifera using acid catalysts. Energy Convers Manag 87:938–945
Yu G, Zhang Y, Guo B, Funk T, Schideman L (2014) Nutrient flows and quality of bio-crude oil produced via catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction of low-lipid microalgae. Bioenergy Res 7(4):1317–1328
Reddy HK, Muppaneni T, Ponnusamy S, Sudasinghe N, Pegallapati A, Selvaratnam T, Seger M, Dungan B, Nirmalakhandan N, Schaub T, Holguin FO (2016) Temperature effect on hydrothermal liquefaction of Nannochloropsis gaditana and Chlorella sp. Appl Energy 165:943–951
Tian W, Liu R, Wang W, Yin Z, Yi X (2018) Effect of operating conditions on hydrothermal liquefaction of Spirulina over Ni/TiO2 catalyst. Bioresour Technol 263:569–575
Vo TK, Kim SS, Ly HV, Lee EY, Lee CG, Kim J (2017) A general reaction network and kinetic model of the hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae Tetraselmis sp. Bioresour Technol 241:610–619
Deniz I, Vardar-Sukan F, Yüksel M, Saglam M, Ballice L, Yesil-Celiktas O (2015) Hydrogen production from marine biomass by hydrothermal gasification. Energy Convers Manag 96:124–130
Promdej C, Chuntanapum A, Matsumura Y (2010) Effect of temperature on tarry material production of glucose in supercritical water gasification. J Jpn Inst Energy 89(12):1179–1184
Watanabe M, Sato T, Inomata H, Smith Jr RL, Arai Jr K, Kruse A, Dinjus E (2004) Chemical reactions of C1 compounds in near-critical and supercritical water. Chem Rev 104(12):5803–5822
Ying GAO, CHEN HP, Jun WANG, Tao SHI, Hai-Ping YANG, Xian-Hua WANG (2011) Characterization of products from hydrothermal liquefaction and carbonation of biomass model compounds and real biomass. J Fuel Chem Technol 39(12):893–900
Tremel A, Stemann J, Herrmann M, Erlach B, Spliethoff H (2012) Entrained flow gasification of biocoal from hydrothermal carbonization. Fuel 102:396–403
Haarlemmer G, Guizani C, Anouti S, Déniel M, Roubaud A, Valin S (2016) Analysis and comparison of biocrudes obtained by hydrothermal liquefaction and fast pyrolysis of beech wood. Fuel 174:180–188
Zhang L, Wang Q, Wang B, Yang G, Lucia LA, Chen J (2015) Hydrothermal carbonization of corncob residues for hydrochar production. Energy Fuel 29(2):872–876
Gan J, Yuan W (2013) Operating condition optimization of corncob hydrothermal conversion for biocrude production. Appl Energy 103:350–357
Jena U, Das KC (2011) Comparative evaluation of thermochemical liquefaction and pyrolysis for biocrude production from microalgae. Energy Fuel 25(11):5472–5482
Channiwala SA, Parikh PP (2002) A unified correlation for estimating HHV of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels. Fuel 81(8):1051–1063
Jain A, Balasubramanian R, Srinivasan MP (2016) Hydrothermal conversion of biomass waste to activated carbon with high porosity: a review. Chem Eng J 283:789–805
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Venkatachalam, C.D., Sengottian, M., Ravichandran, S.R. (2020). Hydrothermal Conversion of Biomass into Fuel and Fine Chemicals. In: Jerold, M., Arockiasamy, S., Sivasubramanian, V. (eds) Bioprocess Engineering for Bioremediation. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, vol 104. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2020_583
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2020_583
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57910-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-57911-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)