Green coal and lubricant via hydrogen-free hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass.

Biocrude derived from biomass via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a sustainable substitute for petroleum to obtain energy and biochemicals. Upgrading biocrude inevitably faces the trade-off between consuming large amounts of hydrogen via hydrotreating and high yield of solid residue without additional hydrogen. In this work, we report a non-hydrogenated refinery paradigm for nearly complete valorization (~90%), via co-generating green coal and bio-lubricant.

Prospects of self-powering leadless pacemakers using piezoelectric energy harvesting technology by heart kinetic motion.

This paper studies the possibility of heart kinetic motion for designing a self-powered intracardiac leadless pacemaker by piezoelectric energy harvesting. A Doppler laser displacement sensor measures in vivo heart kinetic motion. Cantilevered and four-point bending piezoelectric harvesters are studied under the measured in vivo heart kinetic motion.

Green and facile recycling of bauxite residue to biochar-supported iron-based composite material for hydrothermal liquefaction of municipal solid waste.

Industrial and municipal wastes remain significant sources of air, soil, and water pollution, thus causing adverse climate and health impacts. EU faces challenges in developing green recycling processes and reducing GHG emissions. Innovation in green catalysis is a key driver toward the fulfilment of these goals.

Techno-Economic Analysis of the Production of Liquid Biofuels from Sewage Sludge via Hydrothermal Liquefaction.

This work addresses the process and economic performance of the production of gasoline and diesel range fuels from urban sewage sludge. The overall production route involves direct conversion of the sewage sludge to an intermediate oil phase, so-called biocrude, via hydrothermal liquefaction at near-critical water conditions and further upgrading of the biocrude based on conventional refinery processes. The overall mass and energy yields of combined naphtha and middle distillate from sewage sludge on dry basis are approximately 19 and 60%, where the naphtha fraction represents about 45% of the total, with a minimum fuel selling price ranging between 2.

Energy recovery from high ash-containing sewage sludge: Focusing on performance evaluation of bio-fuel production.

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) has shown great potential to convert sewage sludge (SS) with high moisture into bio-crude. However, the disposal and reutilization of hydrothermal liquefaction wastewater (HTLWW) is a critical issue. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is proven to be an alternative to treat organic wastewater.

Online Condition Monitoring of Rotating Machines by Self-Powered Piezoelectric Transducer from Real-Time Experimental Investigations.

This paper investigates self-powering online condition monitoring for rotating machines by the piezoelectric transducer as an energy harvester and sensor. The method is devised for real-time working motors and relies on self-powered wireless data transfer where the data comes from the piezoelectric transducer's output. Energy harvesting by Piezoceramic is studied under real-time motor excitations, followed by power optimization schemes.

Energy Harvesting from a Thermoelectric Zinc Antimonide Thin Film under Steady and Unsteady Operating Conditions.

In practice, there are some considerations to study stability, reliability, and output power optimization of a thermoelectric thin film operating dynamically. In this study stability and performance of a zinc antimonide thin film thermoelectric (TE) specimen is evaluated under transient with thermal and electrical load conditions. Thermoelectric behavior of the specimen and captured energy in each part of a thermal cycle are investigated.

Printing and Folding: A Solution for High-Throughput Processing of Organic Thin-Film Thermoelectric Devices.

Wearable electronics are rapidly expanding, especially in applications like health monitoring through medical sensors and body area networks (BANs). Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have been the main candidate among the different types of energy harvesting methods for body-mounted or even implantable sensors. Introducing new semiconductor materials like organic thermoelectric materials and advancing manufacturing techniques are paving the way to overcome the barriers associated with the bulky and inflexible nature of the common TEGs and are making it possible to fabricate flexible and biocompatible modules.

Optimizing the conditions for hydrothermal liquefaction of barley straw for bio-crude oil production using response surface methodology.

The present paper examines the conversion of barley straw to bio-crude oil (BO) via hydrothermal liquefaction. Response surface methodology based on central composite design was utilized to optimize the conditions of four independent variables including reaction temperature (factor X, 260-340°C), reaction time (factor X, 5-25min), catalyst dosage (factor X, 2-18%) and biomass/water ratio (factor X, 9-21%) for BO yield. It was found that reaction temperature, catalyst dosage and biomass/water ratio had more remarkable influence than reaction time on BO yield by analysis of variance.

Hydrothermal liquefaction of Spirulina and Nannochloropsis salina under subcritical and supercritical water conditions.

Six hydrothermal liquefaction experiments on Nannochloropsis salina and Spirulina platensis at subcritical and supercritical water conditions (220–375 °C, 20–255 bar) were carried out to explore the feasibility of extracting lipids from wet algae, preserving nutrients in lipid-extracted algae solid residue, and recycling process water for algae cultivation. GC–MS, elemental analyzer, FT-IR, calorimeter and nutrient analysis were used to analyze bio-crude, lipid-extracted algae and water samples produced in the hydrothermal liquefaction process. The highest bio-crude yield of 46% was obtained on N.

Conceptual design of an integrated hydrothermal liquefaction and biogas plant for sustainable bioenergy production.

Initial process studies carried out in Aspen Plus on an integrated thermochemical conversion process are presented herein. In the simulations, a hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) plant is combined with a biogas plant (BP), such that the digestate from the BP is converted to a biocrude in the HTL process. This biorefinery concept offers a sophisticated and sustainable way of converting organic residuals into a range of high-value biofuel streams in addition to combined heat and power (CHP) production.

Co-firing straw with coal in a swirl-stabilized dual-feed burner: modelling and experimental validation.

This paper presents a comprehensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling study of co-firing wheat straw with coal in a 150kW swirl-stabilized dual-feed burner flow reactor, in which the pulverized straw particles (mean diameter of 451microm) and coal particles (mean diameter of 110.4microm) are independently fed into the burner through two concentric injection tubes, i.e.