Biomass is a renewable, carbon-neutral resource that produces minimal pollution when used to generate electricity, fuel vehicles, and provide heat for industry. Every year in Iowa, millions of bushels of treated seed corn go unused, and are wasted (sent to the landfill). Old treated seed corn goes unplanted because of low germination rates, but it goes unused because of the toxicity associated with the pesticides and fungicides applied to it. If the toxic additives could be destroyed through gasification with a long, high-temperature residence time, the producer gas from treated seed corn could then be used as a fuel source in regular power plants. The temperature and reactivity required to destroy these chemicals is best achieved in a reactive bed, like one formed by carbon char. This makes a char producing combustion system an ideal candidate for this type of fuel. In this work, a char-producing downdraft gasification system is used to examine system behavior for seed corn fuel. The system is pilot-scale and the producer gas is of primary interest for power production. Both experiments and numerical simulations are carried out and a range of parameters are examined, including the thermal profile, equivalence ratio, bed depth, and producer gas composition. A second downdraft gasifier, with two-stage gasification, is also studied to compare the systems’ behaviors. From these results, a 1-d hybrid model was developed and utilized to predict optimal gas production in these systems. Results show that above the minimal char bed level, higher equivalence ratio (ER) value results in a higher combustion zone temperature and a higher gas yield while leading to a lower CO concentration in the producer gas. Bed height consumes more heat in the combustion zone which brings about a lower combustion zone temperature. In general, ER plays a more dominating role in determining gas yield and combustion zone temperature. The two-stage system, which expands the combustion zone, effectively increases carbon conversion rate and hence generates a producer gas with high cold gas efficiency, although this makes maintaining sufficient char depth difficult.

In most cases, data from petroleum industry wetland studies indicate that treatment wetlands are equally or more effective at removing pollutants from petroleum industry wastewaters than from other types of wastewater. In this study, we discussed the treatment efficiencies of oil-refinery industry wastewater by pilot-scale constructed wetland systems .The constructed wetland systems were one free water surface system filled with the sandy media and one subsurface flow system filled with the gravel media operated in parallel. Each system planted with Phragmites communis. The hydraulic retention time for the treatment wetland was controlled in turn at 0.96, 0.48, and 0.72 days. The experimental results showed that all of these contaminants could be reliably removed from wastewater by treatment wetland, especially the FWS. The effluents from the constructed wetland systems reusing and recovering were feasible.

No description available.

In the large-scale production of <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> (baker's yeast), oxygen transfer, which is one of the major limiting factors, is improved by using high agitation rates. However, high agitation rates subject the microorganisms to high shear stress and caused high power consumption. A microbubble dispersion (MBD) method was investigated to improve oxygen transfer at low agitation rates and thus reduce power consumption and shear stress on the microorganisms. The experiments were conducted at the 1-liter level and subsequently scaled-up to 50-liters using a constant volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient (<i>k_La</i>) method for scaling. In comparison to a conventional air-sparged fermentation, the MBD method considerably improved the cell mass yield, growth rate and power consumption in the 50-liter fermentor. Cell mass production in the MBD system at agitation rate of 150 rpm was about the same as those obtained for a conventional air-sparged system agitatid at 500 rpm. Power consumption in the conventional air-sparged system was three-fold that required for the same biomass yield in the MBD system. However, at the 1-liter scale, the MBD system did not show any significant advantage over the air-sparged system because of the high power consumption. / Master of Science

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Increasing the share of biomass, preferably by replacing fossil fuels, is one way to mitigate the present climate change. Fossil coal can be directly replaced by co-combustion of coal and biomass and fossil engine fuels (gasoline and diesel) could potentially partly be replaced by synthetic renewable fuels produced via entrained flow gasification of biomass. The use of biomass in these processes is so far limited, partly because of the fibrous and hygroscopic nature of biomass which leads to problem in storing, transportation, handling and feeding. This thesis demonstrates how the challenging characteristics of raw biomass are mitigated by the pretreatment method torrefaction. Torrefaction is a process where biomass is heated in an oxygen deficient atmosphere to typically between 240 and 350°C for a time period of 2 minutes to 1 hour. Most of the torrefaction R&amp;D in the literature have so far been performed with bench-scale batch reactors. For the purpose of carefully studying continuous torrefaction, a 20 kg/h torrefaction pilot plant was therefore designed, constructed and evaluated. The overall conclusion from this thesis is that the many benefits of torrefied biomass are valid also when produced with a continuous pilot plant and for typically Swedish forest biomasses. Some of the documented improved biomass properties are increased heating value, increased energy density, higher friability (lower milling energy) and less hydrophilic biomass (less moisture uptake). Most of the improvements can be attributed to the decomposition of hemicellulose and cellulose during torrefaction. The most common variables for describing the torrefaction degree are mass yield or anhydrous weight loss but both are challenging to determine for continuous processes. We therefore evaluated three different methods (one existing and two new suggestions) to determine degree of torrefaction that not require measurement of mass loss. The degree of torrefaction based on analyzed higher heating value of the raw and torrefied biomass (DTFHHV) predicted mass yield most accurate and had lowest combined uncertainty. Pelletizing biomass enhance transportation and handling but results from pelletization of torrefied biomass is still very limited in the literature and mainly reported from single pellet presses. A pelletization study of torrefied spruce with a ring die in pilot scale was therefore performed. The bulk energy density was found to be 14.6 GJ/m3 for pelletized torrefied spruce (mass yield 75%), a 40% increase compared to regular white pellets and therefore are torrefied pellets more favorable for long distance transports. More optimization of the torrefied biomass and the pelletization process is though needed for acquiring industrial quality pellets with lower amount of fines and higher pellet durability than attained in the present study. Powders from milled raw biomass are generally problematic for feeding and handling and torrefied biomass has been proposed to mitigate these issues. The influence of torrefaction and pelletization on powder and particle properties after milling was therefore studied. The results show that powder from torrefied biomass were enhanced with higher bulk densities, lower angle of repose as well as smaller less elongated particles with less surface roughness. Even higher powder qualities were achieved by pelletizing the torrefied biomass before milling, i.e. another reason for commercial torrefied biomass to be pelletized. Entrained flow gasification (EFG) is a promising option for conversion of biomass to other more convenient renewable energy carriers such as electricity, liquid biofuels and green petrochemicals. Also for EFGs are torrefied fuels very limited studied. Raw and torrefied logging residues were successfully gasified in a pilot scale pressurized entrained flow biomass gasifier at 2 bar(a) with a fuel feed corresponding to 270 kWth. Significantly lower methane content (50% decrease) in the syngas was also demonstrated for the torrefied fuel with mass yield 49%. The low milling energy consumption for the torrefied fuels compared to the raw fuel was beneficial for the gasification plant efficiency.

Thermomechanical pulping (TMP) is a highly energy intensive process where most of the energy is used in therefining of chips to fibres. Various ways of reducing the energy consumption have earlier been studied, for examplechange of refiner pattern, addition of various chemicals, and also some biochemical implementation in the form of fungus and enzymes. This study includes pre-trials with the enzymes pectin lyase and pectin esterase,multipectinase, xylanase, and mannanase. The results are studied via a reducing sugar assay, an enzymatic assayusing spectrophotometry, and capillary zone electrophoresis. The study also includes results from a pilot scalerefining with multipectinase, xylanase, and mannanase, performed with a wing refiner at Helsinki University.Reductions of energy consumption in TMP by pre-treatment of Norwegian spruce chips are investigated and apotential reduction of energy consumption of 6 % is indicated.

In recent years, interest in wastewater treatment through constructed wetlands has been significantly increased because of their low cost and energy requirement. In this study, pilot-scale constructed wetland systems were developed to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness on the treatment of oil-refining and steel-milling wastewater. The constructed wetland used to treat the oil-refining wastewater included one free water surface system (FWS) filled with sandy media and one subsurface flow system filled with gravel media. The plants grown on the wetland were Phragmites communis. The hydraulic retention time for the two systems was approximately 7 and 5 days, respectively. A two-stage subsurface flow constructed wetland system was used to treat steel-milling wastewater. This system, which filled with gravel media were planted with Phragmites communis (the first stage) and Typha orientalis (the second stage). The hydraulic retention time for this system was approximately 7 days. Experimental results showed that the two constructed wetland systems for the oil-refining wastewater treatment could remove most of the wastewater pollutants. Moreover, the first system (FWS) played a more important role on the wastewater treatment. The efficiency of the first stage of the wetland system, which was used for steel-milling wastewater treatment was not significant due to the inhibition of the plant growth by the wastewater. However, the treatment efficiency was increased at the second stage after planting new plants. Results from the two-stage treatment system indicate that higher treatment efficiencies were observed except for ammonium. Results from this study would be very useful in the design of constructed wetlands for practical application to treat oil-refining and steel-milling wastewaters.

Emission of hazardous gases such as hydrogen sulphide (H2S) by a variety of industrial processes and as a result of agricultural activities has become an issue of great concern over the years. The control of these gases is needed to ensure public safety, to protect the environment, and lastly to comply with occupational and environmental regulations. Several techniques including biological and physicochemical methods have been applied to remove these gases from contaminated air streams. In this work, Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were used to adsorb H2S gas at ambient temperatures. The effects of H2S concentration (80-1700 mg L-1), nanoparticle size (18, 80-200 nm), gas flow rate (200 and 450 mL min-1), temperature (1-41C) and adsorbent quantity (0.2-1.5 g) were investigated in the laboratory scale. A semi-pilot system was also developed and used to treat H2S emission from stored swine manure. The results show that when H2S concentration was increased the adsorption capacities (both breakthrough and equilibrium) increased and the nanoparticles reached the saturation state faster. When nanoparticles of different sizes were tested, it was observed that 80-200 nm particles got saturated with H2S faster than 18 nm particles. The adsorption capacities were higher with 18 nm particles than those with 80-200 nm. Temperatures did not have an effect on how fast the nanoparticles got saturated and on breakthrough adsorption capacity, but equilibrium adsorption capacity increased due to increase in temperature. The breakthrough and equilibrium adsorption capacities increased with increased quantity of nanoparticles. BET isotherm described the equilibrium data with higher accuracy as compared to other adsorption isotherms which were tested. Semi-pilot scale tests proved the effectiveness of 18 nm ZnO nanoparticles in capture of H2S emitted from stored swine manure. For an experimental period of approximately 100 minutes the level of H2S was reduced from an average initial value of 235.785.2 mg L-1 to a negligible level (an average value of 0.26 mg L-1) corresponding to an H2S removal of at least 99%. Semi pilot tests also showed that 18 nm ZnO nanoparticles were able to capture about 74% of NH3 that passed through the adsorption column.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo desenvolver um protótipo para a produção hidrometalúrgica de sulfato ferroso heptahidratado (FeSO4.7H2O – melanterita). A matéria prima foi um concentrado de pirita obtido a partir de rejeitos do beneficiamento de carvão mineral. Construiu-se, em escala piloto, uma planta de lixiviação com 300 kg de um concentrado com 73,2% de pirita. Nesta unidade, realizou-se uma etapa de lixiviação com água, em circuito fechado, sob condições aeróbias, com o intuito de se obter um extrato aquoso rico em íons férrico e sulfato. A seguir, procederam-se mudanças no sistema de forma a estabelecer uma condição anaeróbia ao meio, transformando os íons férricos em ferrosos. O lixiviado, rico em Fe2+, foi precipitado na forma de sulfato ferroso heptahidratado pela adição de etanol. Esse precipitado foi submetido a uma etapa de recristalização, obtendo-se cristais de melanterita de maior pureza. Ambos os produtos foram caracterizado por análise química elementar e difração de raios X. Os cristais de melanterita recristalizados apresentaram alta pureza, com qualidade para uso químico e farmacêutico. Assim, desenvolveu-se uma nova rota para produção de sulfato ferroso tendo como matéria-prima um concentrado de pirita da mineração de carvão (usualmente o sulfato ferroso é produzido como coproduto da produção de ilmenita e aço). A tecnologia apresenta uma elevada conversão do ferro lixiviado em melanterita e os insumos necessários são pirita, água e álcool etílico. A proposta abre uma nova possibilidade de uso dos rejeitos de carvão e a possibilidade de comercialização de outro produto na cadeia produtiva de carvão mineral. / The aim of this work was to develop a prototype for hydrometallurgical production of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate crystals (FeSO4.7H2O – melanterite). The raw material was a pyrite concentrate obtained from a coal tailing. The leaching system was assembled in pilot scale with 300 kg of a concentrate with 73.2% pyrite. Initially, it was carried out a leaching step in aerobic conditions with the purpose to obtain an aqueous solution rich in ferric ions and sulfate. Next, modifications were proceeded to establish an anaerobic condition in the reactor, converting the ferric to ferrous ions. Ethanol was added to the leaching solution to provide the precipitation of the Fe2+ and sulfate as ferrous sulfate heptahydrate. The ferrous sulfate precipitate was recrystallized, allowing producing melanterite crystals of higher purity. The crystals were characterized in terms of chemical and mineralogical composition. The process allowed producing crystals with a high purity attending chemical and pharmaceutical purposes. Thus, it was developed a process to produce ferrous sulfate from coal wastes (usually, ferrous sulfate crystals are produced as a co product from titanium dioxide and steel production). The technology presents a high conversion factor of soluble Fe2+ to melanterite and the necessary incomes are pyrite, water, and ethylic alcohol. The hydrometallurgical technique applied in this study allowed production of a commercial grade product from coal mining waste material.