Hydrothermal treatment of electron-beam irradiated pine sawdust in a mixture with vacuum tower bottoms

Hydrothermal processing of electron-beam irradiated pine sawdust in a mixture with vacuum tower bottoms (VTB) in an autoclave with continuous removal of the vapor phase at a hydrogen pressure of 7.0 MPa has been investigated. It has been found that as the sawdust irradiation dose increases to 1.0 MGy, the degree of VTB conversion during the hydrothermal treatment of the mixture increases and the amount of the hydrocarbon fraction in the resulting liquid product grows to reach a yield of 38.0 wt %. At a temperature of 430°C, the conversion of biomass for two hours is 83–84 wt % and the yields of liquid and gaseous products are 49.0 and 35.0 wt %, respectively.