Hydrothermal Carbonization

Carbon nanoballs made from glucose via hydrothermal carbonization, that have been processed with CO₂ for 6 hours to change surface properties. SEM image from University of Tartu.

Hydrothermal carbonization for soil amendment.

Basics

• Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC), also known as "hydrochar", is a form of thermal biomass conversion that involves moderate temperatures and pressures over an aqueous solution of biomass in a dilute acid for several hours.
• One advantage of the HTC process over conventional dry-thermal pre-treatments is the ability to handle wet feedstock without pre-drying.
• The resulting "biocoal" can be used as a Fuel or Chemical Feedstock, as a Soil Amendment (similar to biochar), and as a filtration media, among other things
• ’’’As with how Torrefaction is essentially partial Pyrolysis caused by calmer reaction conditions, HTC can be “tuned” to produce Pure Carbon, or something more akin to Lignite

Open Source Hardware Needs

• Pressure Vessel

Internal Links

• Biochar (The term used for using Charcoal / Bio- Petcoke or Hydrochar in soil as a [[Soilsuch as Synthetic Amazonian Black Earth )
• Torrefaction
• The Biochar Economy

External Links

• Paper: "A comparative review of biochar and hydrochar in terms of production, physico-chemical properties and applications"