Selection and use of manganese dioxide by Neanderthals

Several Mousterian sites in France have yielded large numbers of small black blocs. The usual interpretation is that these ‘manganese oxides’ were collected for their colouring properties and used in body decoration, potentially for symbolic expression. Neanderthals habitually used fire and if they needed black material for decoration, soot and...

Method and apparatus for furfural production

The invention concerns a process for the production of furfural from pentoses and/or water soluble pentosans, comprising the steps of feeding an aqueous pentose solution containing one or more pentoses or soluble pentosans to the bottom of a reaction column to produce an aqueous liquid upflow; heating the bottom part of the column using a heat...

The effects of combined catalysis of oxalic acid and seawater on the kinetics of xylose and arabinose dehydration to furfural

It is known that both acids and salts have a positive catalytic effect on the dehydration of pentoses to form furfural, a potentially attractive platform chemical. In this study the effects of the combined usage of an organic acid, instead of stronger mineral acids, and a saline catalyst is investigated. In order to assess these effects, the...

Attempts on cardoon gasification in two different circulating fluidized beds

Few tests have been carried out in order to evaluate the use of cardoon in gasification and combustion applications most of the researchers dealt with agglomeration problems. The aim of this work is to deal with the agglomeration problem and to present a solution for the utilization of this biofuel at a near industrial application scale. For...

Supercritical Water Gasification of Biomass: A Literature and Technology Overview

The supercritical water gasification process is an alternative to both conventional gasification as well as anaerobic digestion as it does not require drying and the process takes place at much shorter residence times; a few minutes at most. The drastic changes in the thermo-physical properties of water from the liquid state to the supercritical...

Mechanistic and kinetic aspects of pentose dehydration towards furfural in aqueous media employing homogeneous catalysis

In this paper both the mechanistic and kinetic aspects of furfural formation from pentoses in aqueous acidic media have been reviewed. Based on the reviewed literature, a comprehensive reaction mechanism has been proposed consisting of more than one route, all starting from acyclic xylose, and involving alternately 1,2-enolization, ?-elimination...

Process for the production of furfural from pentoses and/or water soluble pentosans

The invention is directed to a process for the production of furfural from pentoses and/or water soluble pentosans, said process comprising converting the said pentoses and/or water soluble pentosans in aqueous solution in a first step to furfural and in a second step feeding the aqueous solution containing furfural obtained in the first step to...

Tar formation in a steam-O2 blown CFB gasifier and a steam blown PBFB gasifier (BabyHPR): Comparison between different on-line measurement techniques and the off-line SPA sampling and analysis method

Two on-line tar measurement campaigns were carried out using an atmospheric pressure 100 “”kWth steam-O2 blown circulating fluidized bed (CFB) gasifier at the Delft University of Technology (TUD) and a 30–40kWth steam blown pressurized bubbling fluidized bed (PBFB) gasifier BabyHPR (Heatpipe Reformer) at the Technical University Munich (TUM)....

Process for the treatment of lignocellulosic biomass

The invention is directed to a process for the treatment of lignocellulosic biomass to recover one or more components or derivatives of components thereof, said process comprising treating said biomass at a temperature of at least 75 DEG C in a mixture of an ionic liquid and an organic acid, thereby producing a treatment mixture containing...

Fluidized Bed Gasification as a Mature And Reliable Technology for the Production of Bio-Syngas and Applied in the Production of Liquid Transportation Fuels: A Review

Biomass is one of the renewable and potentially sustainable energy sources and has many possible applications varying from heat generation to the production of advanced secondary energy carriers. The latter option would allow mobile services like the transportation sector to reduce its dependency on the fossil fuel supply. This article reviews...

Overview of biorefineries based on co-production of furfural, existing concepts and novel developments

Study of the behaviour of a catalytic ceramic candle filter in a lab-scale unit at high temperatures