Experimental Study on Drying Biomass with a Spherical Heat Carrier.

Due to the reduction of the thermal efficiency and output fluctuation of the boiler system caused by the high moisture in biomass, dewatering of fuels using low-cost processes is an important step in feedstock pretreatment for biomass power plants. In the present study, a steel ball was used as the spherical heat carrier (SHC). The effects of the SHC temperature on the dewatering of different biomasses were investigated by a mixture-drying device at 40% moisture content of biomass, and the drying process of peanut shells was analyzed. Results showed that the moisture content was effectively reduced, and the combustion performance of the biomass was significantly promoted. The work is likely to provide an economically feasible approach for biomass drying in further studies.

Thermodynamic and kinetic studies on harmful algal blooms harvesting by novel etherified cationic straw flocculant.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are growing threats that cause tens of billion dollars economic loss annually. Aiming at efficient disposal of HABs, a cheap and eco-friendly cationic straw was developed by etherification of wheat straw, which replaced hydroxyl groups on cellulose by quaternary ammonium groups. It endowed the cationic straw with high positive charge and achieved 93.92% of harvesting efficiency by enhancing HABs cells aggregation via charge neutralization. Different from inorganic salts-based flocculants, HABs harvesting by the cationic straw is a spontaneous and exothermic process with negative ΔG° and ΔH° under all adsorption conditions. Thermodynamics and kinetics analysis elucidated that HABs adsorption process by cationic straw were mainly driven by physical forces. Together, cationic straw preparation and HABs harvesting processes were comprehensively optimized with orthogonal experiments. The work may inspire cost-effective HABs disposal and fill knowledge gaps of process nature for HABs harvesting.

Kinetic optimization of odor adsorption with acetate fiber cloth prepared from waste cigarette filter.

Odor pollution with NH3 as major contributor is a notorious issue that strongly influences our living environment. NH3 removal with acetate fiber cloth (AFC) prepared from waste cigarette filter is an economic feasible approach for simultaneous solid wastes disposal. Herein, waste cigarette filter was used to prepare AFC through hot-pressing approach, which was convinced to have good adsorption efficiency on NH3 due to large specific surface area. Effects of hot-pressing temperature, pressure and pressing time on AFC mechanical property and NH3 adsorption efficiencies were optimized by response surface method. As results, hot-pressing treatment improved the specific surface area of AFC to 9.530 m2/g, and thus enhanced NH3 adsorption efficiency to 68.73 % under hot-pressing temperature of 146 °C, pressure of 12.5 kPa and pressing time of 33 min. While the optimal tensile strength of AFC was obtained as 90.43 N under hot-pressing temperature of 140 °C, pressure of 15.0 kPa and pressing time of 30 min. The work provided an economic feasible approach for waste cigarette filter recycling and odor control.