The processes disclosed herein are environmentally friendly technologies to produce biocarbon products with low water intensity as well as low carbon intensity. Some variations provide a low-water-intensity process for producing a biocarbon product, comprising: providing a starting feedstock comprising biomass and water; drying the starting feedstock to generate a dried feedstock and a first vapor; pyrolyzing the dried feedstock to generate hot solids and a second vapor; condensing the first vapor to generate a first condensed liquid having a first pH from about 1 to about 7; condensing the second vapor to generate a second condensed liquid having a second pH from about 1 to about 7; forming acid water comprising the first condensed liquid, the second condensed liquid, or a mixture thereof; washing and cooling the hot solids using the acid water, to generate washed, cooled solids; and recovering the washed, cooled solids as a low-water-intensity biocarbon product.

Disclosed herein is a hermetically sealed flow-through reactor for non-oxidative thermal degradation of a rubber containing waste into a char product, the reactor having an internal cylindrical surface, and the reactor including: an inlet and an outlet; one or more thermal reaction zones arranged between the inlet and the outlet, wherein each thermal reaction zone is provided with: one or more heating elements controllable to heat the thermal reaction zone to an operating temperature for mediating the non-oxidative thermal degradation of rubber in the rubber containing waste, and one or more gas outlets for withdrawing gas or gases evolved during the non-oxidative thermal degradation of the rubber; and a screw auger located within the reactor, the screw augur configured to rotate in both the forward and reverse directions to agitate and transport the rubber containing waste through the one or more thermal reaction zones in both the forward and reverse directions and to the outlet, wherein flighting on the screw auger tracks the internal cylindrical surface of the reactor in close relationship to minimise or prevent the transport of material through a clearance space between outer edges of the flighting and the internal cylindrical surface of the reactor.

Embodiments of the invention provide a portable charcoal system and method of operating thereof, wherein the portable charcoal system comprises a first compartment adapted to burn a material, a second compartment connected to the first compartment and adapted to receive the material from the first compartment, and a third compartment adapted to receive the material from the second compartment, the third compartment comprising an auger adapted to move the material from a back end to a front end, and out of the third compartment. The portable charcoal system further includes a source of air.

Some variations provide a process for producing biocarbon pellets, comprising: pyrolyzing a biomass-containing feedstock in a first pyrolysis reactor to generate a first biogenic reagent and a pyrolysis vapor; introducing the pyrolysis vapor to a separation unit, to generate a pyrolysis precipitate in liquid or solid form; contacting the first biogenic reagent with the pyrolysis precipitate, thereby generating an intermediate material; pelletizing the intermediate material, to generate intermediate pellets; optionally, drying the intermediate pellets; separately pyrolyzing the intermediate pellets in a second pyrolysis reactor to generate a second biogenic reagent and a pyrolysis off-gas; and recovering the second biogenic reagent as biocarbon pellets. Some variations provide a similar process that utilizes a carbon-containing condensed-matter material, which is not necessarily a pyrolysis precipitate. The disclosure provides improved processes for producing biocarbon compositions, especially with respect to carbon yield and biocarbon properties, such as reactivity.

A method for producing an electrically-conductive pellet includes reducing a size of a first material. The method also includes wetting the first material to produce a first slurry. The method also includes introducing the first slurry into a fluidizer to produce a first pellet. The method also includes reducing a size of a second material. The second material is an electrically-conductive material. The method also includes wetting the second material to produce a second slurry. The method also includes applying the second slurry to the first pellet.

This disclosure provides a method of making a high-fixed-carbon material comprising pyrolyzing biomass to generate intermediate solids and a pyrolysis vapor; condensing the pyrolysis vapor to generate pyrolysis liquid; blending the pyrolysis liquid with the intermediate solids, to generate a mixture; and further pyrolyzing the mixture to generate a high-fixed-carbon material. A process can comprise: pyrolyzing a biomass-comprising feedstock in a first pyrolysis reactor to generate a first biogenic reagent and a first pyrolysis vapor; introducing the first pyrolysis vapor to a condensing system to generate a condenser liquid; contacting the first biogenic reagent with the condenser liquid, thereby generating an intermediate material; further pyrolyzing the intermediate material in a second pyrolysis reactor to generate a second biogenic reagent and a second pyrolysis vapor; and recovering the second biogenic reagent as a high-yield biocarbon composition. The process can further comprise pelletizing the intermediate material. Many process and system configurations are disclosed.

Methods and systems are provided for the conversion of waste plastics into various useful downstream recycle-content products. More particularly, the present system and method involves pyrolyzing one or more waste plastics into various pyrolysis products, including a carbon solids-containing pyrolysis residue, and then subjecting the pyrolysis residue to partial oxidation gasification to thereby form a syngas composition.

The invention disclosed a method for recycling rare earth elements from waste light-emitting electronic components by pyrolysis and alkaline melting-acid leaching. Based on the pyrolysis properties of the organic polymer, through catalytic pyrolysis of the organic polymer material in electronic components and convert the carbon in the residue into water gas, realize high-efficient dismantling of waste electronic component packaging materials. The traditional problems that the compositions of waste light-emitting electronic components are difficult to disassemble are solved, the generated pyrolysis gas and water gas can continuously supply energy for the pyrolysis system and recover the heat in the flue gas to save energy. Meanwhile, based on the chemical dissolution reaction mechanism of phosphors, the combination process of alkali melting, and acid leaching is used to efficiently recover rare earth elements from the waste light-emitting electronic components, and the step leaching of rare earth elements is realized. The rare earth oxalate can be recovered by precipitation, which greatly reduces the difficulty of late separation and purification.

Systems and methods of production for consistently sized and shaped optically anisotropic mesophase pitch from vacuum residue, one method including supplying processed vacuum residue to an extruder; heating the processed vacuum residue throughout a horizontal profile of the extruder from an inlet to an outlet of the extruder; venting hydrocarbon off-gases from the extruder along the horizontal profile of the extruder from the inlet to the outlet of the extruder; and physically shaping the consistently sized and shaped mesophase pitch at the outlet of the extruder for production of carbon fibers.

Methods and systems for producing mesophasic (between liquid and solid phases) carbon materials from plastic waste. The method and system includes a 2-stage pyrolysis reactor, including first and second pyrolysis stages where a carbon feedstock material is subjected to pyrolysis. The first pyrolysis stage may subject the carbon feedstock material to pyrolysis at a first temperature in a range of 500° C. to 700° C., and the second pyrolysis stage may operate at a second temperature in a range of 800° C. to 1000° C., providing secondary gas phase reactions (SGR). A residence time of the carbon feedstock material in the reactor may be no more than 10 seconds. After pyrolysis and SGR, a sparging and thermal treatment stage may convert pyrolysis tar products to an anisotropic pitch product suitable for use in production of carbon fiber or bulk graphite for use in fabrication of graphite electrodes.