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 method of and device for processing carbonacious material into gas and activated carbon together with blower.

A method of and device for processing carbonacious material into gas and activated carbon together with blower.

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.

Systems and methods of producing a solid fuel composition are disclosed. In particular, systems and methods for producing a solid fuel composition by heating and mixing a solid waste mixture to a maximum temperature sufficient to melt the mixed plastics within the solid waste mixture is disclosed.

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

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.

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.

Provided is a novel carbonization treatment method for carbonizing a biomass material containing a large amount of water at an extremely low temperature, and a method for producing carbonized biomass. A water-containing biomass material is carbonized while maintaining the biomass material under treatment conditions including an oxygen-containing atmosphere and a temperature range of 70° C. or greater and less than 100° C., without a drying step for removing or reducing the water forcibly. At this time, preferably the water content (percentage) of the biomass material at the start of carbonization while maintained under the treatment conditions is within a range of 40 to 80% inclusive, and preferably the biomass material is thus maintained for two weeks or longer. Further, as the biomass material, one material or a mixture of two or more materials selected from waste biomass materials and plant (cultivated crop) biomass materials such as food waste, livestock excrement, agricultural waste, marine waste, and forest waste, can be applied.