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.

A method for drying high moisture, low calorific value lignite for a generating set and recovering water contained therein and an apparatus thereof mainly consist of a rotary steam tube dryer, a washing cooling tower, a coal mill, a first bag filter, a condenser, a weighing surge bunker, a water ring vacuum pump and so on. A drying system is integrated with a milling system, every dryer and the corresponding coal mill are disposed and are directly connected via a surge bunker, thereby not only saving the heat lost during the transportation of pulverized coal, but also omitting a long-distance transportation from a conventional drying system to a conventional milling system, effectively avoiding such phenomena as dust pollution, waste and spontaneous combustion during transportation and transshipment, simplifying the coal preparation system employed in the front-end process of drying.

A system (102; 302) for recovering natural gas liquid from a low pressure gas source (110; 310), comprising a gas/gas heat exchanger (104; 304), fluid from the gas source flowing therethrough; at least one separator (108; 308) for receiving the fluid from the gas/gas heat exchanger (104; 304) and separating liquid from the gas, the gas being directed via a connecting pipe (116; 316) to the gas/gas heat exchanger (104; 304) where it cools the fluid from the gas source; characterised in that the connecting pipe (116; 316) includes expansion means (106; 322) for cooling the gas therein and liquid injection means (120; 320) for saturating the gas with liquid.

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.

A method for removing amine contaminants from both liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon streams and methods thereof are described. An additive that reacts with said contaminant to form water-soluble compounds is injected into the hydrocarbon streams.

A system for removing mercaptan contaminants from both liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon streams and methods thereof are described. An additive that reacts with said contaminant to form water-soluble compounds is injected into the hydrocarbon streams.

A system for the hydrothermal carbonization of a flowable biomass comprises a pump, a heat exchanger and a tubular reactor. The pump is connected to the heat exchanger via a delivery conduit for the flowable biomass, and the heat exchanger is connected to the tubular reactor via a connecting conduit. The heat exchanger contains an insert element and the tubular reactor contains no insert element.

A method for providing raw material for an industrial process, in particular for steel production, the method including torrefying a torrefaction material, which contains biomass, in a reactor by thermochemically treating the torrefaction material at 200? C. to 600? C., to obtain bio coal, extracting the bio coal from the reactor at a first temperature of up to 600? C., providing bulk materials at a second temperature between 0? C. and 100? C., mixing bio coal with bulk material, thereby cooling down the bio coal with the bulk material and obtaining a mixture of bulk material and bio coal at a third temperature, below the self-ignition temperature of the mixture, and using the mixture to provide the raw material for the industrial process.

The present invention describes a process for purifying biodiesel without using a filter aid, in which purification of the biodiesel takes place by a sequence of washing operations after the reaction section, with stirring that is sufficiently vigorous to assist in the transformation of the molecules of esterified steryl glycosides, in order to convert them to a chemical form that can be removed by the process.

The invention relates to a method for the purification of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose obtained from purines, which can be burned in compliance with environmental standards as a substitute for wood. The method of the invention produces a novel bio-fuel.