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liquification to make bio-oils and mixed syn-gas/methane mixtures.
As we can all probably tell, I'm going through back issues of Energy and Fuels.
Chinese Chemists (notice that one doesn't read much about American Chemists) have described the Thermodynamic parameters of Supercritical Water Oxidation/liquification of corn stalks. The products are bio-oils (chemistry unspecified), asphaltene, and syn gas consisting of methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
Here is the reference Energy & Fuels 2004, 18, 90-96
"The data show that the conversion is very highs95.4 wt % without any catalyst and 95.7 wt % with 1.0 wt % of Na2CO3, respectively; the total liquid yield is 77.6 wt % without any catalyst and 88.8 wt % with 1.0 wt % of Na2CO3, and the yield of gas plus light oil is 17.9 wt % without any catalyst and 6.8 wt % with 1.0 wt % of Na2CO3. The presence of a catalyst not only increases the yield of liquid product, but also improves the quality of liquid product. With the addition of a catalyst, the bio-oil yield increases from 33.4 wt % to 47.2 wt %. The gas analysis indicated that the gas composition is mainly CO2, CO, CH4, C2H6, and H2."
Asphaltene is a major constituent of Alberta tar sands. (It actually isn't happy stuff to handle.)
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