Online residence time distribution measurement of thermochemical biomass pretreatment reactors

Sievers, David A.; Kuhn, Erik M.; Stickel, Jonathan J.; Tucker, Melvin P.; Wolfrum, Edward J.

doi:10.1016/j.ces.2015.10.031

Title: Online residence time distribution measurement of thermochemical biomass pretreatment reactors

Abstract

Residence time is a critical parameter that strongly affects the product profile and overall yield achieved from thermochemical pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass during production of liquid transportation fuels. The residence time distribution (RTD) is one important measure of reactor performance and provides a metric to use when evaluating changes in reactor design and operating parameters. An inexpensive and rapid RTD measurement technique was developed to measure the residence time characteristics in biomass pretreatment reactors and similar equipment processing wet-granular slurries. Sodium chloride was pulsed into the feed entering a 600 kg/d pilot-scale reactor operated at various conditions, and aqueous salt concentration was measured in the discharge using specially fabricated electrical conductivity instrumentation. This online conductivity method was superior in both measurement accuracy and resource requirements compared to offline analysis. Experimentally measured mean residence time values were longer than estimated by simple calculation and screw speed and throughput rate were investigated as contributing factors. In conclusion, a semi-empirical model was developed to predict the mean residence time as a function of operating parameters and enabled improved agreement.

Authors:

Sievers, David A. ^[1]; Kuhn, Erik M. ^[1]; Stickel, Jonathan J. ^[1]; Tucker, Melvin P. ^[1]; Wolfrum, Edward J. ^[1]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Publication Date:: Tue Nov 03 00:00:00 EST 2015

Research Org.:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office

OSTI Identifier:: 1227702

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1358921

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5100-63452
Journal ID: ISSN 0009-2509

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308; AC36-08-GO28308

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Chemical Engineering Science

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 140; Related Information: Chemical Engineering Science; Journal ID: ISSN 0009-2509

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 09 BIOMASS FUELS; 59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; biomass pretreatment; residence-time distribution; electrical conductivity; screw-conveyed reactor

Citation Formats


                    Sievers, David A., Kuhn, Erik M., Stickel, Jonathan J., Tucker, Melvin P., and Wolfrum, Edward J. Online residence time distribution measurement of thermochemical biomass pretreatment reactors.  United States: N. p., 2015. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.ces.2015.10.031.

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                    Sievers, David A., Kuhn, Erik M., Stickel, Jonathan J., Tucker, Melvin P., & Wolfrum, Edward J. Online residence time distribution measurement of thermochemical biomass pretreatment reactors.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2015.10.031

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                    Sievers, David A., Kuhn, Erik M., Stickel, Jonathan J., Tucker, Melvin P., and Wolfrum, Edward J. Tue .  
"Online residence time distribution measurement of thermochemical biomass pretreatment reactors".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2015.10.031.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1227702.

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@article{osti_1227702,

  title        = {Online residence time distribution measurement of thermochemical biomass pretreatment reactors},

  author       = {Sievers, David A. and Kuhn, Erik M. and Stickel, Jonathan J. and Tucker, Melvin P. and Wolfrum, Edward J.},

  abstractNote = {Residence time is a critical parameter that strongly affects the product profile and overall yield achieved from thermochemical pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass during production of liquid transportation fuels. The residence time distribution (RTD) is one important measure of reactor performance and provides a metric to use when evaluating changes in reactor design and operating parameters. An inexpensive and rapid RTD measurement technique was developed to measure the residence time characteristics in biomass pretreatment reactors and similar equipment processing wet-granular slurries. Sodium chloride was pulsed into the feed entering a 600 kg/d pilot-scale reactor operated at various conditions, and aqueous salt concentration was measured in the discharge using specially fabricated electrical conductivity instrumentation. This online conductivity method was superior in both measurement accuracy and resource requirements compared to offline analysis. Experimentally measured mean residence time values were longer than estimated by simple calculation and screw speed and throughput rate were investigated as contributing factors. In conclusion, a semi-empirical model was developed to predict the mean residence time as a function of operating parameters and enabled improved agreement.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.ces.2015.10.031},

  journal      = {Chemical Engineering Science},

  number       = ,

  volume       = 140,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue Nov 03 00:00:00 EST 2015},

  month        = {Tue Nov 03 00:00:00 EST 2015}

}

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Works referenced in this record:

Modeling and optimization of the dilute-sulfuric-acid pretreatment of corn stover, poplar and switchgrass
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Esteghlalian, Alireza; Hashimoto, Andrew G.; Fenske, John J.
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Mosier, Nathan; Wyman, Charles; Dale, Bruce
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Nguyen, Q. A.; Tucker, M. P.; Boynton, B. L.
Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Vol. 70-72, Issue 1
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Nachenius, R. W.; van de Wardt, T. A.; Ronsse, F.
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Stickel, Jonathan J.
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Measurement of residence time distribution of a multicomponent system inside an ohmic heater using radio frequency identification
journal, August 2009

Tulsiyan, Priyank; Sarang, Sanjay; Sastry, Sudhir K.
Journal of Food Engineering, Vol. 93, Issue 3
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Flow characteristics of biomass particles in a horizontal stirred bed reactor: Part I. Experimental measurements of residence time distribution
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Xi, Yingtao; Chen, Qun; You, Changfu
Powder Technology, Vol. 269
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Works referencing / citing this record:

Assessing pretreatment reactor scaling through empirical analysis
journal, October 2016

Lischeske, James J.; Crawford, Nathan C.; Kuhn, Erik
Biotechnology for Biofuels, Vol. 9, Issue 1
DOI: 10.1186/s13068-016-0620-0

Comparison of computational fluid dynamics–discrete element method and discrete element method simulations for a screw conveyor
journal, December 2019

Wang, Shuyan; Ji, Yu; Wang, Shuqing
Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol. 15, Issue 1
DOI: 10.1002/apj.2394

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Title: Online residence time distribution measurement of thermochemical biomass pretreatment reactors

Abstract

Citation Formats

Modeling and optimization of the dilute-sulfuric-acid pretreatment of corn stover, poplar and switchgrass journal, February 1997

Residence-time distribution model for twin-screw extruders journal, December 1999

One-line measurement of the residence time distribution in screw extruders journal, May 1999

Notes on the diffusion-type model for the longitudinal mixing of fluids in flow journal, April 1957

Features of promising technologies for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass journal, April 2005

Dilute acid pretreatment of softwoods: Scientific note journal, March 1998

Residence time distributions of coarse biomass particles in a screw conveyor reactor journal, February 2015

Residence time distribution (RTD) in aseptic processing of particulate foods: a review journal, January 1995

Dilute-Sulfuric Acid Pretreatment of Corn Stover in Pilot-Scale Reactor: Investigation of Yields, Kinetics, and Enzymatic Digestibilities of Solids journal, January 2003

Data smoothing and numerical differentiation by a regularization method journal, April 2010

Measurement of residence time distribution of a multicomponent system inside an ohmic heater using radio frequency identification journal, August 2009

Flow characteristics of biomass particles in a horizontal stirred bed reactor: Part I. Experimental measurements of residence time distribution journal, January 2015

Assessing pretreatment reactor scaling through empirical analysis journal, October 2016

Comparison of computational fluid dynamics–discrete element method and discrete element method simulations for a screw conveyor journal, December 2019

Modeling and optimization of the dilute-sulfuric-acid pretreatment of corn stover, poplar and switchgrass
journal, February 1997

Residence-time distribution model for twin-screw extruders
journal, December 1999

One-line measurement of the residence time distribution in screw extruders
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Notes on the diffusion-type model for the longitudinal mixing of fluids in flow
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Features of promising technologies for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass
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Dilute acid pretreatment of softwoods: Scientific note
journal, March 1998

Residence time distributions of coarse biomass particles in a screw conveyor reactor
journal, February 2015

Residence time distribution (RTD) in aseptic processing of particulate foods: a review
journal, January 1995

Dilute-Sulfuric Acid Pretreatment of Corn Stover in Pilot-Scale Reactor: Investigation of Yields, Kinetics, and Enzymatic Digestibilities of Solids
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