Understanding the influence of microwave heating on biomass-solvent extraction
Publication Date
August 1, 2022
Creator
Abstract
Replacing fossil fuels with cleaner, more sustainable energy/chemical resources is key in tackling the current global challenges. Plant-based biomasses are an abundant resource offering direct access to a set of various fuels and platform chemicals. However, amongst many reasons, the lack of maturity of the available biomass processing techniques has hindered this sector from arriving at the envisaged industrial scales.
This thesis is concerned with biomass-solvent extraction, a process which returns high value-added components from plant-based biomass. Microwave heating is widely thought to enhance this process, but the cause of the enhancement is still unclear as the underpinning mechanisms are yet to be thoroughly described and quantified. Without such fundamental mechanistic understanding, it will not be possible to industrialise the process despite its promising prospects. The aim of this thesis is to characterise the influence of microwave heating on biomass-solvent extraction, thereby understanding whether/how microwaves enhance the process. A mathematical model is developed to quantify extraction at the cellular scale (i.e., <1
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
Faculty of Engineering
eprints ID
69069
UoN Repository URI
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
PhDThesis_TAQI_ALI_14301586_POST_VIVA_CORRECTED_VERSION.pdf
Type
Full-text
Description
Examined. Post-viva corrected version for examiner's approval
Size
9.72 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c5e2748bf89030ce89bb63b6d935ae71