TITLE: Conversion of Cellulosic Wastes to Liquid Fuels.

AUTHOR: J. L. Kuester.

INST.  AUTHOR: Arizona State Univ., Tempe. Coll. of Engineering Sciences.

SPONSOR: Department of Energy, Washington, DC.

LANGUAGE: English

PUB.  TYPE: Technical Report

PUB.  COUNTRY: United States

SOURCE: Department of Energy [DE],  Sep 80,  74p.

ABSTRACT:

The current status and future plans for a project to convert waste cellulosic (biomass) materials to quality liquid hydrocarbon fuels is described. The basic approach is indirect liquefaction, i.e., thermal gasification followed by catalytic liquefaction. The indirect approach results in separation of the oxygen in the biomass feedstock, i.e., oxygenated compounds do not appear in the liquid hydrocarbon fuel product.  The process is capable of accepting a wide variety of feedstocks.  Potential products include medium quality gas, normal propanol, diesel fuel and/or high octane gasoline. A fluidized bed pyrolysis system is used for gasification. The pyrolyzer can be fluidized with recycle pyrolysis gas, steam or recycle liquefaction system off gas or some combination thereof. Tars are removed in a wet scrubber. Unseparated pyrolysis gases are utilized as feed to a modified Fischer-Tropsch reactor. The liquid condensate from the reactor consists of a normal propanol-water phase and a paraffinic hydrocarbon phase. The reactor can be operated to optimize for either product. The following tasks were specified in the statement of work for the contract period: (1) feedstock studies; (2) gasification system optimization; (3) waste stream characterization; and (4) liquid fuels synthesis. In addition, several equipment improvements were implemented. (ERA citation 06:004616)

CONTRACT  NUMBER: AS02-76CS40202