A Unified Treatment for Liquefaction

Abstract

Product and reactor performance data were used to establish the kinetic parameters and mechanisms involved in direct liquefaction and pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass for manuf. of liq. fuels. The rate detg. step in liquefaction is the dissoln. of the solid substrate, specifically, the severity of the hydrolytic cleavage in different methods. Pyrolytic treatment is severe enough to lead to total solubilization of feedstock. Hydrolytic process are assocd. with hemicellulose breakdown; the pyrolysis kinetic consts. reflect lignin degrdn. rather than that of cellulose. In aq. media, liquefaction is a 2-step process, the first being solubilization of the feedstock, followed by conversion of the fragments to oils. [on SciFinder(R)]