Modularized Production of Value-Added Products and Fuels from Distributed Waste Carbon-Rich Feedstocks

We have adapted and characterized electrolysis reactors to complement the conversion of regional- and community-scale quantities of waste into fuel or chemicals, The overall process must he able to contend with a wide range of feedstocks, must he inherently safe, and should not rely on external facilities for co-reactants or heat rejection and supply, Our current approach is based on the upgrading of hio-oil produced by the hydrothermal liquefaction （HTL） of carbon-containing waste feedstocks, HTL can convert a variety of feedstocks into a bio-oil that requires much less upgrading than the products of other ways of deconstructing hiomass, We are now investigating the use of electrochemical processes for the further conversions needed to transform the hio-oil from HTL into fuel or higher value chemicals, We, and others, have shown that electrochemical reduction can offer adequate reaction rates and at least some of the nec- essary generality, In addition, an electrochemical reactor necessarily both oxidizes （removes electrons） on one side of the reactor and reduces （adds electrons） on the other side, Therefore, the two types of reac- tions could, in principle, he coupled to upgrade the hio-oil and simultaneously polish the water that is employed as a reactant and a carrier in the upstream HTL, Here, we overview a notional process, the possible conversion chemistry, and the economics of an HTL-electrochemical process,

我们对电解反应堆进行了改造和表征,以完善区域和社区规模的废弃物向燃料或化学品的转化过程。整个过程必须能够适应各种原料,具有内在的安全性,并且不应依赖外部设施获得共反应物或增加排热量和供热量。我们目前的方法是基于对含碳废弃物的水热液化(HTL)生产的生物油进行升级。HTL可以将各种原料转化为生物油,与其他解构生物质的方式相比,它需要的升级要少得多。我们目前正在研究电化学过程的使用,以进一步将HTL产生的生物油转化为燃料或价值更高的化学品。我们和其他一些研究者已经证明,电化学还原可以提供足够的反应速率,至少在很小的程度上提供了一些必要的通用性。此外,电化学反应器必须在反应器的一侧氧化(去除电子)并在另一侧还原(添加电子)。因此,原则上,这两种类型的反应可以结合以提升生物油的性能,并改善在上游HTL中用作反应物和载体的水质。在这里,我们对假定流程、可能的转化化学和HTL电化学过程的经济性进行了概述。