Current and foreseeable applications of supercritical water forv energy and the environment

It is crucial to develop economical and energy-efficient processes for the sustainable transformation of biomass into fuels and chemicals. In this context, supercritical water biomass valorization (SCBV) processes are an alternative way to produce biogas, biofuels, and valuable chemicals. Supercriti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChemSusChem Vol. 1; no. 6; pp. 486 - 503
Main Authors Loppinet-Serani, Anne, Aymonier, Cyril, Cansell, François
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published ChemPubSoc Europe/Wiley 2008
Subjects
Chemical Sciences
Material chemistry
Supercritical fluids
Water chemistry
Chemical engineering
Biomass
Biofuels
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Summary:It is crucial to develop economical and energy-efficient processes for the sustainable transformation of biomass into fuels and chemicals. In this context, supercritical water biomass valorization (SCBV) processes are an alternative way to produce biogas, biofuels, and valuable chemicals. Supercritical water technology has seen much progress over the last fifteen years and an industrial application has merged: the supercritical water oxidation of wastes. The evolution from lab-scale to pilot-scale facilities has provided data on reaction mechanisms, kinetics, modeling, and reactor technology as well as an important know-how, which can now be exploited to use the reactivity in supercritical water to transform biomass into gases (CO, H2, CO2, CH4, and N2) or into liquids (liquid fuel and valuable chemicals) with the supercritical water biomass gasification and liquefaction processes, respectively. This Review highlights the potential of SCBV processes to transform biomass into gas and liquid energy sources and highlights the developments that are still necessary to push this technology onto the market.
ISSN:1864-5631
1864-564X
DOI:10.1002/cssc.200700167