A process for extracting fuel products from waste rubber, comprising the steps of subjecting the waste rubber to pyrolysis to produce a pyrolysis vapour, subjecting the pyrolysis vapour to a condensation step to produce a pyrolytic oil having a boiling point range of 45-400° C. and a flash point below 25° C., and then subjecting the pyrolytic oil to a vacuum steam stripping step so as to recover a fraction having a flash point of at least 40° C. but no higher than 55° C., a boiling point range starting at 100° C. or higher, a density at 15° C. of less than 990 kg/m.sup.3, a total acid number TAN of up to 12, a styrene content of less than 7000 ppm, and an organic halogen (as Cl) content of less than 50 ppm.

A pyrolysis oil is produced that has a low level of contaminants such as chlorides and metals. The process that is used is without the use of a hydrotreater but instead has both a pretreatment section to target polyvinyl chloride as well as non-plastics including metals and a secondary chloride removal step to first melt the plastic and remove evolved HCl gas. Adsorbents are used to polish the chloride and metal content to an acceptable level. The pyrolysis oil has a significant olefins content such as 36-56 wt %.

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.

A distillation apparatus for use in microwave-assisted pyrolysis includes a microwave, a pyrolysis reactor, a microwave-absorbent bed, and a condenser. The pyrolysis reactor is located within the microwave and configured to receive a liquid input stream and to output a vapor. The microwave-absorbent bed is located within the pyrolysis reactor that converts microwave energy provided by the microwave to thermal energy to initiate pyrolysis within the pyrolysis reactor, wherein the pyrolysis reactor provides a vapor output. The condenser is configured to receive the vapor output of the pyrolysis reactor and to cool and condense the vapor into a recoverable product.

Solvent consumption in supercritical ethanol, propanol or butanol treatment of either refined pre-extracted lignin or comparatively impure lignin-rich solid residual from hydrothermally pretreated lignocellulosic biomass can be minimized by conducting the reaction at very high loading of lignin to solvent. Comparatively impure, crude lignin-rich solid residual can be directly converted by supercritical alcohol treatment to significantly diesel-soluble lignin oil without requirement for pre-extraction or pre-solubilisation of lignin or for added reaction promoters such as catalysts, hydrogen donor co-solvents, acids, based or H2 gas. O:C ratio of product oil can readily be obtained using crude lignin residual in such a process at levels 0.20 or lower.

A process for making a biochar composition by passing renewable organic-carbon-containing feedstock through a beneficiation sub-system to reduce water content followed by introducing beneficiated feedstock into an oxygen-deficient thermal sub-system to result in renewable processed biochar having an energy density of at least 17 MMBTU/ton (20 GJ/MT) a water content of less than 10 wt %, and water-soluble salt that is decreased by at least 60 wt % on a dry basis from that of the unprocessed organic-carbon-containing feedstock.

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

Disclosed is a method for reducing methane emission from slurry (2) produced in a livestock farm (1). The method comprises the steps of guiding the slurry (2) from the livestock farm (1) to a dewatering unit (12) in which the slurry (2) is at least partially dewatered by extracting a watery fraction of said slurry (13), guiding the slurry from the dewatering unit (12) to a steam dryer (3), drying the slurry in the steam dryer (3), guiding the dried slurry (4) into a pyrolysis reactor (5) to produce pyrolysis gas (6) and biochar (7) through a pyrolysis process in the pyrolysis reactor (5), guiding at least a portion of the pyrolysis gas (6) to a combustion unit (8) in which the pyrolysis gas portion is combusted to raise the temperature of the combusted pyrolysis gas (9), guiding the combusted pyrolysis gas (9) to the pyrolysis reactor (5) to drive the pyrolysis process, guiding the combusted pyrolysis gas (9) from the pyrolysis reactor (5) to the steam dryer (3) to increase the temperature of steam (10) in the steam dryer (3), and heating the watery fraction of the slurry 13 to a temperature at least above 75° Celsius by means of the steam (10) from said steam dryer (3). Furthermore, a slurry treatment plant (20) for reducing methane emission from slurry (2) is disclosed.

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.