Converting Waste Agricultural Biomass into a Resource - UNEP

Cornstalk Flash Volatilization
USA, Pilot
Crop
Residue
Process
Equipment
Main Products
Corn
Stalk
Volatilization
automotive fuel injector
Ammonia and synthesis gas
Technical Description of Technology:
The researchers start with either pure soy oil or a thick sugar syrup. Using an
automotive fuel injector, they spray the oil or syrup as fine droplets through a
tube. Sitting like a plug in the tube is a porous ceramic disk made of a special
catalyst material. As the droplets hit the disk-whose surface temperature is
1,000 degrees C-the heat and oxygen break apart the molecules of oil or
sugar. The catalyst guides the breakdown toward the production of synthesis
gas rather than toward water vapor and carbon. The synthesis gas passes
through the porous disk and is collected downstream in the tube. No external
heating is needed because the chemical reactions release enough heat to
break up molecules of oil or sugar following in their wake.
Detailed Process Descriptions:
The oil and sugar water are sprayed as fine droplets from an automotive fuel
injector through a tube onto a ceramic disk made of a catalyst material--the
elements rhodium and cerium--that guides the breakup of the feedstock
molecules toward the production of syngas and away from water and carbon
"gunk." Because the catalytic disk is porous, the syngas passes through it and
is collected downstream in the tube. No external heat is needed, because the
chemical reactions that produce syngas release enough heat to break up
subsequent molecules of oil or sugar.
A difficulty in turning plant material into usable fuels has been breaking down
the chemical bonds in cellulose--the material that gives plant cell walls their
stiffness--to liberate simple sugars that can be fermented into ethanol or
turned into other fuels. That requires special enzymes and lots of time. But the
high heat of the new process breaks those bonds with ease, meaning
cellulose and similar plant materials can possibly be used as feedstocks. The
secret is ultrafast flash volatilization [vaporization] The work was supported by
the Department of Energy and the University of Minnesota Initiative for
Renewable Energy and the Environment.
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