Method for conversion of biomass to biofuel
AssigneeRenewable Fuel Technologies, Inc.
InventorsArthur M. Shulenberger, Mark Wechsler
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method to convert carbonaceous materials, particularly biomass and those biomass resources which are remotely located, into a solid material, which may be a high performance solid fuel, are presented. This method, and the apparatus described as the means to accomplish this method, provides a continuous process which can be completely powered by the energy contained in the biomass. The heat, mechanical power and electrical power are provided from the energy in the biomass, through the methods described. In this way, the apparatus is free to operate in remote locations, where no power or auxiliary fuel sources are available.
Claims26
A method for processing a biomass within an apparatus, said method comprising:
- heating the biomass to convert the biomass into a gas and a solid material;
- reacting at least a portion of the gas to form reacted gases;
- recovering thermal energy from said reacted gases in a fluid of a closed-loop heat exchanger;
- and
- providing at least a portion of the recovered thermal energy from reacted gases to said heating the biomass.
A method of processing biomass in an apparatus, said method comprising:
- heating the biomass to produce torrefied solid biomass and torrefaction gases evolved from torrefaction of the biomass;
- and
- gasification of the biomass to produce gasified biomass,
- where the amount of torrefaction gases and the amount of gasified biomass are adjusted to vary characteristics of the torrified biomass.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.