Disclosed are methods of producing calcined coke from bio-oil from a biomass feedstock. Also disclosed are calcined cokes produced by such methods.

A solvent is dispersed into a natural gas feed at a solvent injection point to produce a mixed feed. The mixed feed contains heavy components with a potentially fouling portion that can cause obstructions in a heat exchanger. A fluid injection system can inject the solvent intermittently, for instance, based on an amount of accumulation or expected accumulation of heavy component solids in the heat exchanger. The solvent prevents the potentially fouling portion of the heavy components from freezing, melts or dissolves the accumulation, and reduces the obstructions in the heat exchanger. The fluid injection system includes a solvent supply, an optional atomizer, an injection controller, optionally one or more sensors, and/or optionally a heater. The solvent injection system can disperse the solvent onto a flow surface for the natural gas feed and/or mixed feed to form a solvent film which further reduces heavy component solids.

A process and an apparatus are disclosed for separation of a hydrocarbon gas stream containing methane and heavier hydrocarbons and significant quantities of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The gas stream is cooled and expanded, then fractionated in a first distillation column into a first overhead vapor and a hydrocarbon liquid stream containing the majority of the carbon dioxide. The hydrocarbon liquid stream is fractionated into a hydrocarbon vapor stream and a less volatile fraction comprised of heavier hydrocarbons.

The first overhead vapor is cooled, expanded, and separated into vapor and liquid streams. Both streams are cooled and expanded before feeding a second distillation column that produces a second overhead vapor that is predominantly nitrogen and a bottom liquid that is predominantly methane. The bottom liquid is vaporized and combined with the hydrocarbon vapor stream to form a volatile residue gas fraction containing the majority of the methane.

A method of producing a hydrocarbon fuel from a soapstock includes supplying a pyrolysis reactor that includes a microwave absorbent bed susceptible to microwave irradiation, applying microwave energy to the pyrolysis reactor, wherein the microwave absorbent bed converts the microwave energy to thermal energy, supplying the soapstock to the microwave absorbent bed, and condensing a vapor generated by pyrolysis of the soapstock sufficient to collect the hydrocarbon fuel.

A process for cleaning and beneficiating biomass is described which may allow removal of entrained salts and light volatiles from biomass materials. The process may also minimize energy use through capturing steam and flue gases for re-use. The process may generally comprise the following steps: prewashing and/or preheating a biomass, pressurizing the biomass in a steam explosion vessel, rapidly depressurizing the steam explosion vessel, releasing the steam from the steam explosion vessel entrained with fine lignin-enriched particles into a cyclone-type gas expansion vessel, routing the steam from the gas expansion vessel to the input hopper, subjecting the biomass to a second washing step, mechanically removing a portion of the water from the biomass, and evaporatively heating the biomass.

Aqueous wastewater from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) systems is typically high in chemical oxygen demand (COD), which renders classic aerobic wastewater treatment to be prohibitively expensive. HTL wastewater can be processed using thermochemical wet oxidation in a manner that is not only cost efficient but also contributes more heat than is required for the energetically demanding HTL process. Provided are methods and devices for integrated hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass and treatment of resulting wastewater.

This disclosure describes processes for using a single cellulosic feedstock or a combination of two or more different cellulosic feedstocks with a starch component to produce a fermented product. The process includes separating the components of the cellulosic feedstocks with fractionation, pretreating a component with wet fractionation with chemicals, hydrolysis and fermenta-tion of the pretreated feedstock(s) to produce cellulosic biofuel. The process may include combining the cellulosic feedstock(s) with other components to a cook and/or a fermentation process, distilling and dehydrating the combined components to produce the biofuel. The process may also include producing a whole stillage stream from the feedstock(s) and mechanically processing the whole stillage stream to produce a high-value protein animal feed.

A system for melting contaminant-laden solids that have been separated from a hydrocarbon-containing vapor stream in a hydrocarbon distillation tower, comprising at least one plate positioned where the solids form within the hydrocarbon distillation tower, hollow tubing forming an integral part of each of the at least one plate, and a heating medium disposed to flow through the hollow tubing at a higher temperature than a temperature of the solids to at least partially melt the solids.

Provided is a novel carbonization treatment method for carbonizing a biomass material containing a large amount of water at an extremely low temperature, and a method for producing carbonized biomass. A water-containing biomass material is carbonized while maintaining the biomass material under treatment conditions including an oxygen-containing atmosphere and a temperature range of 70° C. or greater and less than 100° C., without a drying step for removing or reducing the water forcibly. At this time, preferably the water content (percentage) of the biomass material at the start of carbonization while maintained under the treatment conditions is within a range of 40 to 80% inclusive, and preferably the biomass material is thus maintained for two weeks or longer. Further, as the biomass material, one material or a mixture of two or more materials selected from waste biomass materials and plant (cultivated crop) biomass materials such as food waste, livestock excrement, agricultural waste, marine waste, and forest waste, can be applied.

A system for processing a material includes a pre-processing module configured to receive the material, mechanically stress the received material, and output the mechanically stressed material. The system also includes a pyrolysis module communicatively coupled to the pre-processing module and downstream of the pre-processing module. The pyrolysis module is configured to receive the mechanically stressed material from the pre-processing module and to perform a pyrolysis process on the received mechanically stressed material, thereby to produce one or more pyrolysis products.