Here is a topical area that AlphaThermal brings unprecedented expertise. With over 100 publications we are one of the most knowledgeable resource on the art of thermochemical conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals.
Our principal, Dr. Boateng, is the author of ‘Pyrolysis of Biomass for Fuels and Chemicals.’ He and his associates are the inventors of the CRIPS, the combustion, reduction integrated pyrolysis system, and were first to deploy a mobile system of the design to operate at a Pennsylvania farm site.
Alternative Fuels
We provide expertise on pyrolysis oil production and use as combustion fuel in industrial furnaces. Pyrolysis is by far the most facile route to biomass conversion to fungible fuels. The liquid intermediate, although not a hydrocarbon fuel per se’ but rather oxygenated compound mixtures, can be fired ‘neat’ in industrial kilns or can be further upgraded to transportation fuels and chemicals.
Neat pyrolysis oil can also me stabilized using various surfactants so it can be burned not only in industrial furnaces but in home-heating furnaces to reduce our environmental footprint such as global warming potential. AlphaThermal can assist you in achieving such goals. Some of our work are presented herein.
Biochar/Biocarbon
Our expertise in the carbonization of biomass allows us the following:
- Production and use for soil amendment applications
- Production and use as soil compost including application of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi to achieve soil symbiosis with nutrient uptake
- Production and use as pathogen remediation
- Production and use as carbon source for carbothermic reduction processes (iron ore, ilmenite ore beneficiation) in industrial furnaces.
