An apparatus including a carbonizing furnace for obtaining a carbonized biomass by carbonizing a molded biomass and classification means disposed at the downstream side of the carbonizing furnace for classifying the carbonized biomass, and cooling means disposed at the downstream side of the classification means for cooling the classified carbonized biomass. The molded biomass is obtained by molding pulverized raw biomass and the cooling means cools the carbonized biomass by spraying water.

The present invention concerns an improved process for a process for the treatment of biomass, comprising (a) subjecting biomass to hydrothermal treatment in a hydrothermal reactor by immersing the biomass in a treatment liquid, wherein an effluent drained from step (b) or (c) is used as treatment liquid; (b) draining the liquid from the reactor via a liquid outlet to obtain a liquor and simultaneously or subsequently introducing another washing liquid into the reactor, wherein the washing liquid is pre-heated to a temperature 30? C. below operational temperature of step (a) or higher before being introduced into the reactor, (c) draining the reactor to obtain washed hydrothermally treated biomass and an effluent, wherein at least one of step (a) and (b) is performed at a temperature in the range of 100-250? C. The invention further concerns a solid fuel and a liquor obtained by the process according to the invention, as well as a hydrothermal treatment facility to operate the process according to the invention.

A process for producing combustible product from an organic or biomass feedstock, the process comprising: mixing the feedstock with an alkaline material to give an alkaline aqueous mixture; heating the mixture by ohmic heating to a temperature in the range of about 280 C. to about 320 C. and reacting the mixture under subcritical conditions at the said temperature range and a pressure of about 6.6 to about 11.6 MPa (65 bar gauge to about 115 bar gauge); and removing at least some of the water to leave a combustible product, which may be used to form an aqueous slurry, suspension or emulsion and combusted in a suitable engine.

A combined hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and catalytic hydrothermal gasification (CHG) system and process are described that convert various biomass-containing sources into separable bio-oils and aqueous effluents that contain residual organics. Bio-oils may be converted to useful bio-based fuels and other chemical feedstocks. Residual organics in HTL aqueous effluents may be gasified and converted into medium-BTU product gases and directly used for process heating or to provide energy.

The present disclosure relates to a process for the conversion of biomass to crude bio-oil. Phycocyanin is extracted from the biomass to form phycocyanin extracted biomass (PEB) and subjecting the PEB to HTL conversion to obtain crude bio-oil. PEB results in improved yield of crude bio-oil as compared to the crude bio-oil yield from biomass without first extracting the phycocyanin from the biomass.

The invention concern methods for converting carbonaceous feedstock slurry into synthetic fuel gas comprising: (a) introducing a carbonaceous feed stock slurry into a first reaction vessel via a continuous feed; (b) converting said carbonaceous feed stock slurry to a carbon char slurry comprising carbon char, and water by allowing said carbonaceous feed stock slurry to have a residency time of between 5 and 30 minutes in said first reaction vessel, said carbonaceous feed stock slurry being heated to a temperature of between about 260 to about 320 C. at a pressure such that water does not flash to steam.

Disclosed is a reactor for treating, particularly by hydrothermal carbonization, sludge containing organic matter, including, with: a vessel (100) including an inner chamber arranged to receive the sludge and to form a path of travel for the sludge adapted to allow for circulation of the sludge, a sludge inlet (1) arranged to introduce the sludge into a sludge introduction area of the inner chamber, a sludge outlet (11) arranged to discharge at least part of the sludge contained in the inner chamber, and a steam inlet (3) arranged to inject steam in a steam injection zone of the inner chamber along a steam injection direction, the steam injection direction being different from a sludge circulation direction in the steam injection zone along the circulation path, the steam injection zone being separated from the sludge introduction zone.

A compact, on-demand system to produce high pressure (5,000 psig) and high temperature (450 C.) water or other liquids which maintains single-phase flow throughout the system utilizing low-cost, thick-wall tubing and thereby negate the requirement to design the unit as a boiler or adhere to coded pressure vessel design requirements. This design can also replace a conventional boiler for the generation of hot water as well as low and high pressure steam.

A process for the gasification of wet biomass. The process comprises heating wet biomass at a pressure in the range of from 22.1 MPa to 35 MPa. The wet biomass is heated from a temperature of at most T.sub.1 to a temperature of at least T.sub.2 by heat exchange with a first heating fluid. The gasification product is further heated. The further heated gasification product is used as the first heating fluid, upon which the further heated gasification product is cooled down from a temperature of at least T.sub.3 to a temperature of at most T.sub.4. The temperatures T.sub.1, T.sub.2, T.sub.3 and T.sub.4 can be calculated by using certain mathematical formulae. Also claimed: a reaction apparatus for the gasification of wet biomass.

A combined hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and catalytic hydrothermal gasification (CHG) system and process are described that convert various biomass-containing sources into separable bio-oils and aqueous effluents that contain residual organics. Bio-oils may be converted to useful bio-based fuels and other chemical feedstocks. Residual organics in HTL aqueous effluents may be gasified and converted into medium-BTU product gases and directly used for process heating or to provide energy.