A process for thermal cracking of a feedstock of plastic materials, in particular waste materials, includes the steps of melting the feedstock, conveying melted feedstock in a pyrolysis chamber where the melted feedstock is heated in a substantially oxygen purged environment, to convert it into pyrolysis gases, the process further comprising the steps of: driving pyrolysis gases from the pyrolysis chamber into a tray reflux column comprising a partial condenser at its upper extremity, returning pyrolysis gases condensed in the tray reflux column into the pyrolysis chamber, distilling pyrolysis gases exiting the partial condenser of the reflux column, to provide one or more fuel products.

Increasing of the heating value of combustible biomass through hemicellulose extraction and subsequent press-drying is described. After hemicellulose extraction the remaining biomass is soft and easily press-dried to high dry content of up to 80%. The method involves the removal of most water binding hemicelluloses and retaining most of the lignin in the biomass. Lignin can either be retained in the biomass during the extraction or combining the lignin, which has been separated from the hemicellulose extract, with the extracted biomass.

There is provided a method of hydrothermal carbonization of a sludge, comprising the steps of: a) preheating the sludge to obtain a preheated sludge; b) adding an oxidizing agent, such as oxygen gas, to the preheated sludge; and c) subjecting the sludge from step b) to hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) in a reactor to obtain a HTC-treated sludge.

The present invention relates to a multifunctional spontaneous combustion inhibitor for bituminous coal in the form of a foam concentrate, which may inhibit the spontaneous combustion of bituminous coal, prevent the scattering of bituminous coal, prevent the occurrence of problems due to spontaneous combustion, such as a power plant operation failure, bituminous coal waste, and odor generation, enables a bituminous coal power plant to be operated economically, safely and environmentally friendlily through the use of inexpensive bituminous coal, and may be used even at 20 C. by improving the pour point thereof. The present invention is characterized in that a spontaneous combustion inhibitor is prepared in the form of a water-soluble foam concentrate by using an antioxidant, a volatile fraction activation inhibitor, and an emulsifier compound, is mixed with water and air, and is distributed and applied to bituminous coal in a foamed state.

Methods and systems for extracting natural gas are described herein. The source of the natural gas may be a reservoir of natural gas or natural gas and crude oil found on land or in a subterranean or subsea environment. The natural gas also may be that extracted from a subsea reservoir of naturally formed clathrate hydrate. The methods may be performed on land, at the sea surface or at the seafloor. The methods feature providing a suitable promoter to facilitate selective formation of a structure II (sII) methane clathrate hydrate to thereby store natural gas in a readily transportable form. The methods may also feature separating both natural gas and associated water involved in producing it from impurities.

The embodiments described herein are directed a device for conditioning gas comprising an inlet for receiving fuel. The device includes an injector for injecting an oxygen source into the fuel, a heating component for heating the fuel, a conditioner unit, and a cooling component. The device further comprises an outlet for feeding conditioned gas into an engine. The embodiments are also directed to a method for conditioning gas.

Disclosed are systems and methods of continuous hydrothermal carbonization of wet biomass, such as manure. A disclosed system uses both inlet flow rate and outlet flow rate simultaneously to regulate the reaction time for continuous production.

A method is disclosed for producing a mechanically stable, energy dense and water-resistant biomass product. By utilizing a unique two-step heating process in combination with mechanical compression, the resulting biomass product retains its physical shape and strength after immersion in ambient water for many hours. The treatment is effective for a variety of cellulosic biomass materials including forest slash wood.

In a method of producing a hydrocarbon-based synthetic fuel by adding water to a base oil, it is intended to increase a ratio of the synthetic fuel to a hydrocarbon-based fuel as the base oil, more significantly than ever before. Specifically, provided is a method of producing a hydrocarbon-based synthetic fuel oil having a volume greater than that of a hydrocarbon-based base fuel oil, by adding water to the hydrocarbon-based base fuel oil, wherein a first-order hydrocarbon-based synthetic fuel oil produced by the production method is used as a base fuel oil for producing a second-order hydrocarbon-based synthetic fuel oil, or this process is repeated plural times in sequence, thereby producing a hydrocarbon-based synthetic fuel having a high water addition rate.

A method for producing charcoal particles or pellets which use different additives as binders for the biochar pellets. The method includes producing a mixture with charcoal and additives selected from nanocrystalline cellulose, nanocrystalline fibrils, bentonite, and polyvinyl acetate. The mixture is created by mixing one or more of the additives with charcoal or bentonite. The mixture is then processed in a pelletizer device. While processing, the surface of the mixture is sprayed with a liquid. Once turned into pellets by way of the pelletizer device, the resulting pellets are then dried by applying heat to the pellets. The liquid can be water or a solution of water and sodium borate.