Replies to post #1078 on A.I.M. Users Bulletin Board (AIMUSERS)

[Conrad]

Hi Tom, The website on steam explosion was not available but I will check it out later. I suspect that it refers to high pressure hydrothermal biomass treatment and then suddenly letting the pressure drop so that the superheated water in the pores of the biomass flashes into steam. Back in the 70-ties this method was already used to optimize the cellulose yield in pulping so that a shorter chip cooking time was required.

My interest lies in a derivative of this process Supercritical Hydrothermal Gasification. This method yields high putity synthesis gas from which hydrogen for fuel cells can be made. Research on this is going on in Holland but I am not involved in it(too bad).
Thanks for the link.

Conrad

PS: How do you manage to put an hyperlink in the text on this page?

[OldAIMGuy]

Hi C, Yes, I believe it's the same general process. It's been used for begasse reduction in Brazil, corn stover reduction for making cattle feed here and in pulp recycling along with many other uses. Actually that's just the tail of the company any more as STAKE now is North America's largest soy products producer and that is where the majority of their revenues and income originate.

Best regards, Tom
PS: to imbed a URL address, just type it with the http start. Make sure it's separated by a space at the beginning and end from any other text.