HYDROLYZED LIGNIN – A HIGH-CALORIE FUEL AND EASILY AVAILABLE RENEWABLE RAW MATERIAL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FUEL PELLETS AND BRIQUETTES

Abstract

The article presents existing technologies and equipment for the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic raw materials to obtain lignin, hemicellulose, cellulose. Currently, the relevance of the issue of the production of alternative energy sources is constantly growing, because every year traditional energy sources – gas, coal, oil – become more and more difficult to extract, and this leads to a constant increase in their cost. Also, reserves of traditional energy sources are rapidly depleted, which makes the production of alternative energy sources a very promising business direction.

The purpose of the work is to study and analyze existing technologies and equipment for the production of hydrolytic lignin, develop new heat and mass exchange equipment to intensify methods of preparing lignin, consider the prospects for the further use of lignin in various industries.

The use of biomass as the main material for obtaining fuel and chemical elements has long been the subject of extensive research. As possible raw materials, cellulose and lignin are considered, which are the main components of lignocellulosic biomass.

Known methods of biomass processing, including obtaining lignin from lignocellulosic biomass, are not optimal in terms of simplicity of their implementation and the obtained product yield and therefore require their improvement. For the most part, such methods are associated with high costs for their hardware design and the creation of the necessary conditions for their implementation.

One of the ways to increase the efficiency of complex processing of lignocellulosic raw materials is the introduction of innovative energy-saving equipment, which allows increasing the degree of conversion of raw materials into main and by-products. An example of equipment that significantly intensifies heat and mass transfer in liquid multicomponent media is rotary-pulsation apparatus, which are effective devices in technologies related to mixing, homogenization, dispersion, heating, extraction, etc. The proposed use of rotary-pulsation apparatus allows for more uniform mixing of lignocellulosic raw materials with the solution and the elimination of a mixer with gearboxes for mixing, which reduces the cost of bioethanol production. The combination of the autohydrolysis process using RPA and chemical (alkaline) treatment of solid raw materials in the solution significantly affects the speed of the cellulose and lignin separation process with lower energy consumption. The proposed pilot plant is designed for preliminary preparation of lignocellulosic raw materials for hydrolysis. It is universal and can be used in various technological processes.