Hydrothermal pulping of wet biomass as pretreatment for supercritical water gasification studied using cabbage as a model compound

Abstract

Liquidization of wet biomass (cabbage) was conducted at 423-473 K and 1.2-1.3 MPa. Liquidization was found to be caused by the breakdown of cell structure, mainly by decomposition of hemicellulose. Liquidized product was slurry liquid, which could be described as a Newton fluid. The higher the temperature for liquidization treatment was, the lower the apparent viscosity of liquidized product was. It was also confirmed that gasification in supercritical water (673 K, 25 MPa) was promoted by liquidization treatment at 423 K.