IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v269y2020ics0306261920306784.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fuel properties of hydrochar and pyrochar: Prediction and exploration with machine learning

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Jie
  • Pan, Lanjia
  • Suvarna, Manu
  • Tong, Yen Wah
  • Wang, Xiaonan

Abstract

Conversion of wet organic wastes into renewable energy is a promising way to substitute fossil fuels and avoid environmental deterioration. Hydrothermal carbonization and pyrolysis can convert wet organic wastes into hydrochar and pyrochar, which are potential fossil fuel alternatives due to their comparable fuel properties. Machine learning (ML) has strong prediction ability after being trained with historic dataset and facilitates good understanding of the impact of input features on output targets through a data-driven approach. In this study, ML models for multi-task prediction of fuel properties of the chars were developed and optimized based on two datasets for hydrochar and pyrochar. Feature importance and correlation were explored based on optimized ML model, and feature re-examination was conducted for model improvement. Results showed that support vector regression model with optimal hyper-parameters exhibited better generalized performance for prediction of both hydrochar and pyrochar properties with the best average R2 of 0.90 and 0.94. ML-based feature analysis indicated that process temperature and carbon content in the feedstock were the significant features impacting fuel properties of both chars, while nitrogen content was another important input feature for hydrochar and hydrogen content for pyrochar. The accuracy (especially for pyrochar), generalization ability, and computational speed of models were further improved after feature re-examination. The intuitions obtained from feature analysis provided meaningful insights to select input features for prediction performance improvement and computational cost saving, and might guide experiments to produce chars with desired quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Jie & Pan, Lanjia & Suvarna, Manu & Tong, Yen Wah & Wang, Xiaonan, 2020. "Fuel properties of hydrochar and pyrochar: Prediction and exploration with machine learning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:269:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920306784
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115166
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920306784
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115166?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mau, Vivian & Gross, Amit, 2018. "Energy conversion and gas emissions from production and combustion of poultry-litter-derived hydrochar and biochar," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 510-519.
    2. Ciuta, Simona & Patuzzi, Francesco & Baratieri, Marco & Castaldi, Marco J., 2018. "Enthalpy changes during pyrolysis of biomass: Interpretation of intraparticle gas sampling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 1985-1993.
    3. Ismail, Tamer M. & Yoshikawa, Kunio & Sherif, Hisham & Abd El-Salam, M., 2019. "Hydrothermal treatment of municipal solid waste into coal in a commercial Plant: Numerical assessment of process parameters," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 653-664.
    4. Zhao, Peitao & Chen, Hongfang & Ge, Shifu & Yoshikawa, Kunio, 2013. "Effect of the hydrothermal pretreatment for the reduction of NO emission from sewage sludge combustion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 199-205.
    5. Zhao, Peitao & Shen, Yafei & Ge, Shifu & Chen, Zhenqian & Yoshikawa, Kunio, 2014. "Clean solid biofuel production from high moisture content waste biomass employing hydrothermal treatment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 345-367.
    6. Salcedo-Sanz, S. & Cornejo-Bueno, L. & Prieto, L. & Paredes, D. & García-Herrera, R., 2018. "Feature selection in machine learning prediction systems for renewable energy applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 728-741.
    7. Yu, Yang & Lei, Zhongfang & Yang, Xi & Yang, Xiaojing & Huang, Weiwei & Shimizu, Kazuya & Zhang, Zhenya, 2018. "Hydrothermal carbonization of anaerobic granular sludge: Effect of process temperature on nutrients availability and energy gain from produced hydrochar," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 88-95.
    8. Li, Liang & Flora, Joseph R.V. & Berge, Nicole D., 2020. "Predictions of energy recovery from hydrochar generated from the hydrothermal carbonization of organic wastes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 1883-1889.
    9. Tripathi, Manoj & Sahu, J.N. & Ganesan, P., 2016. "Effect of process parameters on production of biochar from biomass waste through pyrolysis: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 467-481.
    10. Huang, Yu-Fong & Cheng, Pei-Hsin & Chiueh, Pei-Te & Lo, Shang-Lien, 2017. "Leucaena biochar produced by microwave torrefaction: Fuel properties and energy efficiency," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 1018-1025.
    11. Tian, Hailin & Li, Jie & Yan, Miao & Tong, Yen Wah & Wang, Chi-Hwa & Wang, Xiaonan, 2019. "Organic waste to biohydrogen: A critical review from technological development and environmental impact analysis perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    12. Liu, Zhengang & Quek, Augustine & Balasubramanian, R., 2014. "Preparation and characterization of fuel pellets from woody biomass, agro-residues and their corresponding hydrochars," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1315-1322.
    13. Li, Hui & Liu, Xinhua & Legros, Robert & Bi, Xiaotao T. & Jim Lim, C. & Sokhansanj, Shahab, 2012. "Pelletization of torrefied sawdust and properties of torrefied pellets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 680-685.
    14. Chiang, Kung-Yuh & Chien, Kuang-Li & Lu, Cheng-Han, 2012. "Characterization and comparison of biomass produced from various sources: Suggestions for selection of pretreatment technologies in biomass-to-energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 164-171.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Parthasarathy Velusamy & Jagadeesan Srinivasan & Nithyaselvakumari Subramanian & Rakesh Kumar Mahendran & Muhammad Qaiser Saleem & Maqbool Ahmad & Muhammad Shafiq & Jin-Ghoo Choi, 2023. "Optimization-Driven Machine Learning Approach for the Prediction of Hydrochar Properties from Municipal Solid Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Mostafa, Mohamed E. & Hu, Song & Wang, Yi & Su, Sheng & Hu, Xun & Elsayed, Saad A. & Xiang, Jun, 2019. "The significance of pelletization operating conditions: An analysis of physical and mechanical characteristics as well as energy consumption of biomass pellets," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 332-348.
    3. Zhu, Guangyue & Wen, Chang & Liu, Tianyu & Xu, Minghou & Ling, Peipei & Wen, Wuhao & Li, Ruonan, 2024. "Combustion and co-combustion of biochar: Combustion performance and pollutant emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 376(PA).
    4. Ye, Lian & Zhang, Jianliang & Wang, Guangwei & Wang, Chen & Mao, Xiaoming & Ning, Xiaojun & Zhang, Nan & Teng, Haipeng & Li, Jinhua & Wang, Chuan, 2023. "Feasibility analysis of plastic and biomass hydrochar for blast furnace injection," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PD).
    5. Zhang, Zhikun & Zhu, Zongyuan & Shen, Boxiong & Liu, Lina, 2019. "Insights into biochar and hydrochar production and applications: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 581-598.
    6. Śliz, Maciej & Wilk, Małgorzata, 2020. "A comprehensive investigation of hydrothermal carbonization: Energy potential of hydrochar derived from Virginia mallow," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 942-950.
    7. Yu, Yang & Lei, Zhongfang & Yang, Xi & Yang, Xiaojing & Huang, Weiwei & Shimizu, Kazuya & Zhang, Zhenya, 2018. "Hydrothermal carbonization of anaerobic granular sludge: Effect of process temperature on nutrients availability and energy gain from produced hydrochar," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 88-95.
    8. Wang, Liping & Chang, Yuzhi & Li, Aimin, 2019. "Hydrothermal carbonization for energy-efficient processing of sewage sludge: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 423-440.
    9. Aragón-Briceño, C.I. & Pozarlik, A.K. & Bramer, E.A. & Niedzwiecki, Lukasz & Pawlak-Kruczek, H. & Brem, G., 2021. "Hydrothermal carbonization of wet biomass from nitrogen and phosphorus approach: A review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 401-415.
    10. Surup, Gerrit Ralf & Leahy, James J. & Timko, Michael T. & Trubetskaya, Anna, 2020. "Hydrothermal carbonization of olive wastes to produce renewable, binder-free pellets for use as metallurgical reducing agents," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 347-357.
    11. Qi, Renzhi & Xu, Zhihua & Zhou, Yuwei & Zhang, Daofang & Sun, Zhenhua & Chen, Weifang & Xiong, Mengmeng, 2021. "Clean solid fuel produced from cotton textiles waste through hydrothermal carbonization with FeCl3: Upgrading the fuel quality and combustion characteristics," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    12. Zhuang, Xiuzheng & Liu, Jianguo & Zhang, Qi & Wang, Chenguang & Zhan, Hao & Ma, Longlong, 2022. "A review on the utilization of industrial biowaste via hydrothermal carbonization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    13. Riva, Lorenzo & Nielsen, Henrik Kofoed & Skreiberg, Øyvind & Wang, Liang & Bartocci, Pietro & Barbanera, Marco & Bidini, Gianni & Fantozzi, Francesco, 2019. "Analysis of optimal temperature, pressure and binder quantity for the production of biocarbon pellet to be used as a substitute for coke," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    14. Lin, Yi-Li & Zheng, Nai-Yun & Lin, Ching-Shi, 2021. "Repurposing Washingtonia filifera petiole and Sterculia foetida follicle waste biomass for renewable energy through torrefaction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    15. Chen, Ying-Chu & Jhou, Sih-Yu, 2020. "Integrating spent coffee grounds and silver skin as biofuels using torrefaction," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 275-283.
    16. Wang, Tengfei & Zhai, Yunbo & Zhu, Yun & Li, Caiting & Zeng, Guangming, 2018. "A review of the hydrothermal carbonization of biomass waste for hydrochar formation: Process conditions, fundamentals, and physicochemical properties," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 223-247.
    17. He, Chao & Tang, Chunyan & Li, Chuanhao & Yuan, Jihui & Tran, Khanh-Quang & Bach, Quang-Vu & Qiu, Rongliang & Yang, Yanhui, 2018. "Wet torrefaction of biomass for high quality solid fuel production: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 259-271.
    18. Xue, Junjie & Yang, Zengling & Han, Lujia & Liu, Yuchen & Liu, Yao & Zhou, Chengcheng, 2015. "On-line measurement of proximates and lignocellulose components of corn stover using NIRS," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 18-25.
    19. Bach, Quang-Vu & Skreiberg, Øyvind, 2016. "Upgrading biomass fuels via wet torrefaction: A review and comparison with dry torrefaction," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 665-677.
    20. González, William A. & López, Diana & Pérez, Juan F., 2020. "Biofuel quality analysis of fallen leaf pellets: Effect of moisture and glycerol contents as binders," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 1139-1150.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:269:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920306784. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.