Authors

Calista Dean

Document Type

Video

Publication Date

Spring 2021

Abstract

The goal of this project is to study the kinetics of hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass. Biomass contains stored chemical energy that can be converted to renewable liquid and gaseous fuels through various processes, but an in-depth understanding of the kinetics of these processes is important in order for them to be feasible on a large scale. Since biomass degradation products depend on the type of biomass used as well as the reaction conditions, this task can be quite complicated. To minimize complications in our initial studies, we will use D-glucose as the starting material. To better understand the degradation pathway’s dependence on reaction conditions, qualitative and quantitative analysis will be done on the products of hydrothermal degradation of D-glucose after various reaction times and conditions. However, the appropriate analytical techniques must be identified and tested first to ensure they are capable of identifying and quantifying biomass degradation products. The analytical techniques tested for this analysis include nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS), and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

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