Sub- And supercritical water liquefaction of kraft lignin and black liquor derived lignin

Jukka Lappalainen* (Corresponding Author), David Baudouin, Ursel Hornung, Julia Schuler, Kristian Melin, Saša Bjelić, Frédéric Vogel, Jukka Konttinen, Tero Joronen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview Articlepeer-review

53 Citations (Scopus)
195 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

To mitigate global warming, humankind has been forced to develop new efficient energy solutions based on renewable energy sources. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising technology that can efficiently produce bio-oil from several biomass sources. The HTL process uses sub- or supercritical water for producing bio-oil, water-soluble organics, gaseous products and char. Black liquor mainly contains cooking chemicals (mainly alkali salts) lignin and the hemicellulose parts of the wood chips used for cellulose digestion. This review explores the effects of different process parameters, solvents and catalysts for the HTL of black liquor or black liquor-derived lignin. Using short residence times under near- or supercritical water conditions may improve both the quality and the quantity of the bio-oil yield. The quality and yield of bio-oil can be further improved by using solvents (e.g., phenol) and catalysts (e.g., alkali salts, zirconia). However, the solubility of alkali salts present in black liquor can lead to clogging problem in the HTL reactor and process tubes when approaching supercritical water conditions.
Original languageEnglish
Article number3309
Number of pages42
JournalEnergies
Volume13
Issue number13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Jul 2020
MoE publication typeA2 Review article in a scientific journal

Keywords

  • Black liquor
  • Hydrothermal liquefaction
  • Lignin from black liquor

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