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Mild Solvent Extraction of Corn Stover to Produce Pitch
| CO-PI(s): | Czarena Crofcheck |
| Adam Berkovich |
University of Kentucky
The thermochemical conversion of agricultural and forestry biomass into value-added chemicals and materials holds great promise for improving industrial sustainability and increasing markets available for Kentucky crop producers. This proposed project will investigate the conversion of corn stover to a value-added material, pitch, by mild solvent extraction (MSE). Domestic supply of binder pitches, essential for the production of aluminum, is currently declining while demand is increasing. Alternative, low-cost sources of binder pitch would address an immediate need of Kentucky's aluminum industry. MSE is an extractive process which utilizes a heavy solvent to directly convert biomass to liquid products, gases, and solid chars without the need for hydrogen overpressure or catalysis at conditions which favor the formation of heavy products such as pitch. MSE is proven to be a viable route for the conversion of coal into chemicals and materials. The extension of this low cost process to the conversion of biomass, although offering new challenges, is a logical choice for reducing domestic dependence on foreign petroleum crude, creating new “green”, carbon neutral processes for producing chemicals and materials that are currently being produced from fossil sources, and expanding the market for biomass to increase farm income. Biomass is very heterogeneous in elemental composition and may have a high moisture content. The use of MSE is expected to capitalize on these factors, specifically targeting the production of heavy liquids (pitches), chemical feedstocks (phenols, cresols, and oxygenates), and carbon materials. Other thermochemical processes are either economically challenged due to the need for high pressure hydrogenation and catalysis (direct liquefaction, solvolysis) or unsuited for the production of heavy liquid products due to operating conditions which primarily favor thermal cracking and the formation of light oils and gases (pyrolysis, indirect liquefaction).
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