Leaching as a pretreatment process to complement torrefaction in improving co-firing characteristics of Jatropha curcas seed cake

Madanayake, Buddhike Neminda; Gan, Suyin; Eastwick, Carol; Ng, Hoon Kiat

doi:10.1007/s12649-015-9467-z

Leaching as a pretreatment process to complement torrefaction in improving co-firing characteristics of Jatropha curcas seed cake

Madanayake, Buddhike Neminda; Gan, Suyin; Eastwick, Carol; Ng, Hoon Kiat

Authors

Buddhike Neminda Madanayake

Suyin Gan

CAROL EASTWICK CAROL.EASTWICK@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Hoon Kiat Ng

Abstract

The presence of certain inorganic elements in biomass causes issues such as slagging, fouling and corrosion when co-firing with coal for power generation. In this work, the efficacy of leaching to remove these elements from Jatropha curcas seed cake was investigated. Leaching of both untorrefied and torrefied seed cakes was carried out in Milli-Q water at temperatures of 20, 35 and 50 °C. At 20 °C, the two critical elements, potassium and chlorine, decreased by as much as 85 and 97 %, respectively. Leaching at higher temperatures was only beneficial for the more intensely torrefied biomass, since they were more resistant to leaching. The electrical conductivity and ion content of the leachates were measured, as were the inorganic elemental content, dry ash content, volatile matter content and higher heating value (HHV) of the solid seed cake. A secondary benefit of the leaching was an increase in the HHV by up to 10 %.

Citation

Madanayake, B. N., Gan, S., Eastwick, C., & Ng, H. K. (2016). Leaching as a pretreatment process to complement torrefaction in improving co-firing characteristics of Jatropha curcas seed cake. Waste and Biomass Valorization, 7(3), 559-569. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-015-9467-z

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Sep 16, 2015
Online Publication Date	Dec 30, 2015
Publication Date	Jun 3, 2016
Deposit Date	Mar 18, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Mar 18, 2016
Journal	Waste and Biomass Valorization
Print ISSN	1877-2641
Electronic ISSN	1877-265X
Publisher	Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	7
Issue	3
Pages	559-569
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-015-9467-z
Public URL	https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/796785
Publisher URL	http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12649-015-9467-z/fulltext.html
Additional Information	The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12649-015-9467-z.
Contract Date	Mar 18, 2016