Innovations in Thermochemical Technologies For Biofuel Processing 1St Edition Sonil Nanda Full Chapter

Innovations in Thermochemical
Technologies for Biofuel Processing

1st Edition Sonil Nanda
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I N N O VAT I O N S I N
THERMOCHEMICAL
TECHNOLOGIES
FOR BIOFUEL
PROCESSING
I N N O VAT I O N S I N
THERMOCHEMICAL
TECHNOLOGIES
FOR BIOFUEL
PROCESSING
Edited by
SONIL NANDA
Titan Clean Energy Projects Corporation, Craik,
Saskatchewan, Canada
DAI-VIET N. VO
Center of Excellence for Green Energy and
Environmental Nanomaterials, Nguyen Tat Thanh
University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
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Contents v
Contents
Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi
Editors biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Chapter 1 Thermochemical conversion of organic waste: New horizons

for production of green energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Biswa R. Patra, Rudra N. Mohapatro, Sunita Routray, Ranjita Swain, Sonil Nanda
and Ajay K. Dalai
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Green energy from organic wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Waste organic biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Thermochemical biomass conversion technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.5 Hydrothermal biomass conversion technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6 Current challenges and future prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Chapter 2 Progress in biomass fast pyrolysis: An outlook of modern

experimental approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Khursheed B. Ansari, Mohd. Danish, Arghya Banerjee, Saeikh Z. Hassan,
Daniel V. Sahayaraj, Mohd S. Khan, Pham Thanh Huyen and Quang Thang Trinh
2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
2.2 Modern approaches in fast pyrolysis of biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3 Effect of catalysts in isothermal fast pyrolysis of biomass . . . . . . . . . 32
2.4 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
vi Contents
Chapter 3 Production of solid and liquid fuels for energy

applications via pyrolysis of biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Ahmed I. Osman
3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
3.2 Solid fuel from biomass pyrolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.3 Liquid fuel from biomass pyrolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.4 Pretreatment methods in bio-oil production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.5 Economic feasibility of bio-oil utilization in the
production of biodiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
3.6 Bibliometric analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.7 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Chapter 4 Pyrolytic valorization of an invasive crop (Phragmites) to

high-value biofuels and bioproducts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
Chiara Barbiero, Sonil Nanda and Franco Berruti
4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
4.2 Lignocellulosic biomass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94
4.3 Pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.4 Effect of inorganics on pyrolysis reactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
4.5 Reactor technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.6 Market and value-added products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Chapter 5 State-of-the-art practices to upgrade biomass fast

pyrolysis derived bio-oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Khursheed B. Ansari, Arghya Banerjee, Mohd. Danish, Saeikh Z. Hassan,
Daniel V. Sahayaraj, Mohd S. Khan, Thi To Nga Phan and Quang Thang Trinh
Contents vii
5.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

5.2 Overview of newer techniques for bio-oil upgrading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.3 Progress in computational or theoretical approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.4 Case study for using process simulation approach to study
the upgrading of pyrolysis bio-oil: ASPEN simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.5 Advancement on the biomass pyrolysis using machine-learning
and data-driven approaches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
5.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Chapter 6 Biofuel production with integrated pyrolysis and catalytic

upgrading system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Le K.H. Pham, Suwadee Kongparakul, Prasert Reubroycharoen,
Surachai Karnjanakom, Salman R. Naqvi, Guoqing Guan and Chanatip Samart
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.2 Mechanism of biomass pyrolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.3 Catalytic pyrolysis of solid biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.4 Catalyst design for catalytic pyrolysis of solid biomass. . . . . . . . . . .155
6.5 Experimental and pilot studies in catalytic pyrolysis
of biomass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156
6.6 Catalytic pyrolysis of waste oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
6.7 Catalyst design for catalytic pyrolysis of waste oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.8 Reactor design and process intensification for catalytic
pyrolysis of waste oil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171
6.9 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Chapter 7 Thermochemical valorization of oil palm biomass to

value-added products: A biorefinery concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Bamidele V. Ayodele, Siti I. Mustapa, May A. Alsaffar, Cheng K. Cheng
and Regina J. Patinvoh
viii Contents
7.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178

7.2 Oil palm biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.3 Overview of thermochemical valorization of oil palm biomass. . .182
7.4 Biorefinery concept for the valorization of oil palm biomass . . . . . 188
7.5 Industrial applications of the various products from the
thermochemical valorization of oil palm biomass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .190
7.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Chapter 8 Vegetable oil-based feedstocks for biofuel production:

Physicochemical properties and chemical compositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
N. Asikin-Mijan, Darfizzi Derawi, Nadia Salih, Jumat Salimon,
G. Abdulkareem Alsultan, M.S. Mastuli and Megan X.Y. Ravindran
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
8.2 Bioethanol feedstocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8.3 Biodiesel and green fuel feedstocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
8.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Chapter 9 Advanced biofuels: Deoxygenation and

hydrodeoxygenation catalytic reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Darfizzi Derawi, N. Azira Abdul Razak and N. Asikin-Mijan
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
9.2 Generation of biofuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
9.3 Advanced biofuel: Potential feedstock and production
technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
9.4 Development and current status of hydrodeoxygenation and
deoxygenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
9.5 Role of catalyst in hydrodeoxygenation and deoxygenation . . . . . 226
9.6 Types of advanced biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
9.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Contents ix
Chapter 10 Recent progress in biomass air gasification using

moving and fixed bed gasifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Abrar Inayat, Rumaisa Tariq, Chaouki Ghenai, Muhammad Shahbaz, Zakir Khan,
Farrukh Jamil and Muhammad Ayoub
10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
10.2 Air gasification using moving bed gasifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.3 Air gasification via bubbling fluidized bed gasifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
10.4 Air gasification via entrained flow gasifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
10.5 Air gasification via circulating and dual fluidized bed gasifier . . 245
10.6 Air gasification using fixed bed gasifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
10.7 Air gasification via updraft gasifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
10.8 Air gasification via downdraft gasifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
10.9 Air gasification via cross draft gasifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
10.10 Air gasification using a thermogravimetric analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
10.11 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Chapter 11 Hydrothermal gasification of biomass for hydrogen

production: Advances, challenges, and prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Narasiman Nirmala, Munusamy Subathra, Sivaprasad Shyam,
Shanmuganantham S. Dawn, Kannappan P. Gopinath and Jayaseelan Arun
11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
11.2 Biomass as a bioresource for hydrogen production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
11.3 Hydrogen production from biomass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
11.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
x Contents
Chapter 12 Combination of atmospheric pressure plasma with catalysts

for dry reforming of methane to value-added chemicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Quang Hung Trinh, Duy Khoe Dinh, Dae Hoon Lee, Duc Ba Nguyen,
Young Sun Mok and Won Gyu Lee
12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
12.2 Nonthermal plasma catalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
12.3 Plasma-catalyst interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
12.4 CH4 –CO2 conversion to synthesis gas using plasma
and catalyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
12.5 Direct one-step CO2 –CH4 conversion to liquid fuel using plasma
and catalyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
12.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Contributors xi
Contributors
May A. Alsaffar
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Technology, Baghdad,
Iraq
G. Abdulkareem Alsultan
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Putra
Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Khursheed B. Ansari
Department of Chemical Engineering, Zakir Husain College of Engineering
and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
Jayaseelan Arun
Centre for Waste Management – International Research Centre,
Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu,
India
Bamidele V. Ayodele
Institute of Energy Policy and Research, Universiti Tenaga Nasional,
Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
Muhammad Ayoub
Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Petronas,
Bander Seri Iskander, Malaysia
Arghya Banerjee
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Ropar, Rupnagar, Punjab, India
Chiara Barbiero
Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources (ICFAR),
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western
University, London, Ontario, Canada
Franco Berruti
Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources (ICFAR),
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western
University, London, Ontario, Canada
Cheng K. Cheng
Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates
Ajay K. Dalai
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
xii Contributors
Mohd. Danish
Department of Chemical Engineering, Zakir Husain College of Engineering
Shanmuganantham S. Dawn
India
Darfizzi Derawi
Department of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Duy Khoe Dinh
Department of Industrial Plasma Engineering, Korea Institute of Machinery
and Materials, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Chaouki Ghenai
Department of Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering, University
of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Kannappan P. Gopinath
Department of Chemical Engineering, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College
of Engineering, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Guoqing Guan
Institute of Regional Innovation, Hirosaki University, Aomori, Japan
Saeikh Z. Hassan
Department of Petroleum Studies, Zakir Husain College of Engineering
Pham Thanh Huyen
School of Chemical Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and
Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam
Abrar Inayat
Department of Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering, University
of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Farrukh Jamil
Department of Chemical Engineering, Comsats University Islamabad,
Lahore, Pakistan
Surachai Karnjanakom
Department of Chemistry, Rangsit University, Pathumthani, Thailand
Mohd S. Khan
Department of Chemical Engineering, Dhofar University, Salalah, Oman
Zakir Khan
Department of Chemical Engineering, Comsats University Islamabad,
Lahore, Pakistan
Contributors xiii
Suwadee Kongparakul
Department of Chemistry, Thammasat University, Pathumtani, Thailand
Dae Hoon Lee
Department of Industrial Plasma Engineering, Korea Institute of Machinery
and Materials, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Won Gyu Lee
Division of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Kangwon National
University, Kangwon, Republic of Korea
M.S. Mastuli
Centre for Nanomaterials Research, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Selangor,
Malaysia
N. Asikin-Mijan
Rudra N. Mohapatro
Department of Chemical Engineering, C.V. Raman Global University,
Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Young Sun Mok
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Jeju National
University, Jeju, Republic of Korea
Siti I. Mustapa
Institute of Energy Policy and Research, Universiti Tenaga Nasional,
Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
Sonil Nanda
Titan Clean Energy Projects Corporation, Craik, Saskatchewan, Canada
Salman R. Naqvi
School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of
Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Duc Ba Nguyen
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Jeju National
University, Jeju, Republic of Korea
Narasiman Nirmala
India
Ahmed I. Osman
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University
Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Regina J. Patinvoh
Department of Chemical Engineering, Lagos State University, Lagos,
Nigeria
xiv Contributors
Biswa R. Patra
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Le K.H. Pham
Thi To Nga Phan
School of Chemical Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and
Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam
Megan X.Y. Ravindran
N. Azira Abdul Razak
Prasert Reubroycharoen
Center of Excellence on Petrochemical and Materials Technology,
Department of Chemical Technology, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok,
Thailand
Sunita Routray
Daniel V. Sahayaraj
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State
University, Ames, Iowa, United States
Nadia Salih
Jumat Salimon
Chanatip Samart
Muhammad Shahbaz
Division of Sustainable Development, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha,
Qatar
Sivaprasad Shyam
Department of Chemical Engineering, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College
of Engineering, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Munusamy Subathra
Department of Biotechnology, Aarupadai Veedu Institute of Technology,
Paiyanoor, Tamil Nadu, India
Contributors xv
Ranjita Swain
Rumaisa Tariq
School of Chemical & Materials Engineering, National University of
Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Quang Thang Trinh
Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore
(CARES), Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise
(CREATE), Singapore
Quang Hung Trinh
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Le Quy Don Technical University,
Hanoi, Vietnam
Editors biographies xvii
Editors biographies
Dr. Sonil Nanda

Dr. Sonil Nanda is the Director of Research and Development
at Titan Clean Energy Projects Corporation in Craik, Saskatchewan,
Canada. He received his PhD degree in Biology from York University,
Canada; MSc degree in Applied Microbiology from Vellore Institute
of Technology (VIT University), India; and BSc degree in Microbiol-
ogy from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, India. For-
merly, he was a Research Associate at the University of Saskatchewan
in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada and a Postdoctoral Fellow at York
University and the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Nanda’s research
areas are related to the production of advanced biofuels and biochem-
ical through thermochemical and biochemical conversion technolo-
gies such as gasification, pyrolysis, carbonization, torrefaction, and
fermentation. He has gained expertise in hydrothermal gasification
of various organic wastes and biomass, including agricultural and
forestry residues, industrial effluents, municipal solid wastes, cat-
tle manure, sewage sludge, food wastes, waste tires, and petroleum
residues to produce hydrogen fuel. His parallel interests are also in
the generation of hydrothermal flames for the treatment of hazardous
wastes, agronomic applications of biochar, phytoremediation of heavy
metal contaminated soils, as well as carbon capture and sequestration.
Dr. Nanda has published 14 edited books, 68 book chapters, and over
125 peer-reviewed journal articles. He is the editor of some popular
books entitled “New Dimensions in Production and Utilization of Hy-
drogen” (Elsevier), “Recent Advancements in Biofuels and Bioenergy
Utilization” (Springer Nature), “Biorefinery of Alternative Resources:
Targeting Green Fuels and Platform Chemicals” (Springer Nature),
“Fuel Processing and Energy Utilization” (CRC Press), “Bioprocessing of
Biofuels” (CRC Press), “Progressive Thermochemical Biorefining Tech-
nologies” (CRC Press), “Algal Biorefinery: Developments, Challenges
and Opportunities” (Routledge), and “Catalytic and Noncatalytic Up-
grading of Oils” (American Chemical Society). Dr. Nanda is a fellow
member of the Society for Applied Biotechnology in India, as well as
a life member of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, Associa-
tion of Microbiologists of India, Indian Science Congress Association,
and the Biotech Research Society of India. He is also a member of
several chemical engineering societies across North America, such as
the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Chemical Institute
xviii Editors biographies
of Canada, the Combustion Institute-Canadian Section, and Engineers

Without Borders Canada. Dr. Nanda is an Assistant Subject Editor of
the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (Elsevier) as well as an
Associate Editor of Environmental Chemistry Letters (Springer Nature)
and Applied Nanoscience (Springer Nature). He has also edited several
special issues in renowned journals, such as the International Journal
of Hydrogen Energy (Elsevier), Chemical Engineering Science (Elsevier),
Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery (Springer Nature), Waste and
Biomass Valorization (Springer Nature), Topics in Catalysis (Springer
Nature), SN Applied Sciences (Springer Nature), and Chemical Engi-
neering & Technology (Wiley).
Editors biographies xix
Dr. Dai-Viet N. Vo
Dr. Dai-Viet N. Vo is the Director of the Center of Excellence for
green energy and environmental nanomaterials at Nguyen Tat Thanh
University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He received his PhD degree
in chemical engineering from The University of New South Wales
in Sydney, Australia in 2011. He has worked as a postdoctoral fellow
at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and Texas A&M
University in Qatar, Doha. Formerly, he was a Senior Lecturer at the
faculty of chemical & natural resources engineering in the Universiti
Malaysia Pahang in Kuantan, Malaysia (2013–2019). His research areas
are in the production of green synthetic fuels via Fischer-Tropsch
synthesis using biomass-derived syngas from various reforming
processes. He is also an expert in advanced material synthesis and
catalyst characterization. During his early career, he has worked
as the principal investigator and co-investigator for 21 different
funded research projects related to sustainable and alternative
energy. He has published eight books, 30 book chapters, more than
300 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings. He
has served in the technical and publication committees of numerous
international conferences in chemical engineering, catalysis, and
renewable energy. Dr. Vo is the editor of books entitled “New
Dimensions in Production and Utilization of Hydrogen” (Elsevier),
“Biorefinery of Alternative Resources: Targeting Green Fuels and
Platform Chemicals” (Springer Nature), “Fuel Processing and Energy
Utilization” (CRC Press), “Progressive Thermochemical Biorefining
Technologies” (CRC Press), and “Nanostructured Photocatalysts:
From Fundamental to Practical Applications” (Elsevier). Dr. Vo
is an Assistant Subject Editor for the International Journal of
Hydrogen Energy (Elsevier) and a Guest Editor for several Special
Issues in high-impact factor journals, such as the International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy (Elsevier), Chemosphere (Elsevier), Fuel
(Elsevier), Comptes Rendus Chimie (Elsevier), Biomass Conversion and
Biorefinery (Springer Nature), Waste and Biomass Valorization
(Springer), Topics in Catalysis (Springer), Journal of Chemical
Technology & Biotechnology (Wiley), Chemical Engineering &
Technology (Wiley), and several others. He is also an Associate
Editor of Environmental Chemistry Letters (Springer Nature) and
Applied Nanoscience (Springer Nature). He is also an Editorial Board
Member of many international journals, including SN Applied Sciences
(Springer), Scientific Reports (Springer Nature), and PLOS One. Dr. Vo
has been awarded as a Top Peer Reviewer 2019 powered by Publons.
Preface xxi
Preface
Global warming, climate change, pollution, fluctuating fuel prices,

and accumulation of nonbiodegradable wastes are some of the global
environmental concerns today. These issues are rooted in every geo-
graphical region of the world due to the increased demand for energy
resources, exploiting usage of fossil fuels, excessive industrial manu-
facturing, and unrestrained greenhouse gas emissions, to name a few.
Diversion of the wastes for thermochemical valorization seems to be a
potential approach to generate clean fuels, chemicals, and materials,
which have less environmental impact. Moreover, the biofuels pro-
duced from the thermochemical conversion of organic wastes, such
as agricultural crop residues, woody biomass, energy crops, invasive
plants, sewage sludge, municipal solid waste, microalgae, etc., can
reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. In addition to biofuels, several
bioproducts, such as biochar, syngas, and biochemicals, are obtained
from thermochemical processing of biomass, which has a broad range
of industrial applications. This book covers the current research and
development of some leading thermochemical technologies for waste-
to-energy conversion such as pyrolysis, liquefaction, torrefaction, car-
bonization, gasification, and reforming, to name a few.
Chapter 1 by Patra et al. makes a state-of-the-art literature review
of various thermochemical biorefinery approaches for various waste
feedstocks. The chapter precisely highlights some major thermochem-
ical and hydrothermal technologies for biomass conversion to biofu-
els. Chapter 2 by Ansari et al. addresses the modern experimental
approaches which contribute to pyrolysis technology. A systematic ap-
proach is established for major subreactions in pyrolysis, which govern
the bio-oil composition and the effect of heat and mass transfer. The
effect of catalysts on the product yields from fast pyrolysis of biomass
is also highlighted. Chapter 3 by Osman summarizes the most recent
advancements in biochar and bio-oil production technologies for en-
ergy applications through bibliometric mapping analysis. This chapter
suggests that the approach of biochar production from biomass is a
mature enough research area and technology for scale-up than that of
bio-oil production. Chapter 4 by Barbiero et al. explores the potential
of pyrolysis as a thermochemical biorefining technology to convert
invasive plants, energy crops, and lignocellulosic biomass for high-
value and energy-dense biofuel products. Chapter 5 by Ansari et al.
describes the newer theoretical approaches in the catalytic upgrading
of bio-oil via density functional theory. The chapter reveals crucial
xxii Preface
insights into bio-oil upgrading over a catalyst in terms of multiple

reactions, kinetics, and energetics. Chapter 6 by Pham et al. gives an
overview of biofuel production with integrated pyrolysis and catalytic
upgrading systems. Chapter 7 by Ayodele et al. describes the thermo-
chemical valorization of oil palm biomass to value-added fuel products
through pyrolysis, gasification, steam reforming, and hydrothermal
liquefaction. Chapter 8 by Asikin-Mijan et al. reviews the recent ad-
vancements of biofuels derived from edible and nonedible oils. This
chapter also describes the physical and chemical compositions of dif-
ferent biofuel feedstocks that provide a fundamental understanding
of their selection for biofuel production. Chapter 9 by Derawi et al.
reviews the current development in catalytic hydrodeoxygenation and
deoxygenation technologies for the upgrading of bio-oil. Chapter 10 by
Inayat et al. provides up-to-date information on different types of gasi-
fiers used in biomass gasification along with their product potentials,
challenges, and perspectives. Chapter 11 by Nirmala et al. reviews the
physicochemical properties of biomass for thermochemical process-
ing as well as some promising technologies for hydrogen production
including fermentation, gasification, and photocatalytic reforming.
Chapter 12 by Trinh et al. describes the application of atmospheric
pressure plasma and catalysts for dry reforming of methane to value-
added chemicals.
We are grateful to all the authors for contributing their high-quality
manuscripts to develop this book. We also express our sincere thanks to
the staff and associates at Elsevier for their enthusiastic assistance and
support in the preparation of this book. Our special thanks go to Susan
Dennis (Publisher), Ivy Dawn Torre (Editorial Project Manager), R.
Vijay Bharath (Production Project Manager) and Miles Hitchen (Cover
Designer).
Dr. Sonil Nanda
Director of Research and Development
Titan Clean Energy Projects Corporation
Craik, Saskatchewan, Canada
Email: sonil.nanda@outlook.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6047-0846
Dr. Dai-Viet N. Vo
Director
Center of Excellence for Green Energy and
Environmental Nanomaterials
Nguyen Tat Thanh University
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Email: vndviet@ntt.edu.vn
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9064-7016
Thermochemical conversion of
1
organic waste: New horizons for
production of green energy
Biswa R. Patra a, Rudra N. Mohapatro b, Sunita Routray b,
Ranjita Swain b, Sonil Nanda c and Ajay K. Dalai a
a
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. b Department of Chemical
Engineering, C.V. Raman Global University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
c
Titan Clean Energy Projects Corporation, Craik, Saskatchewan, Canada
Chapter Outline
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Green energy from organic wastes 3
1.3 Waste organic biomass 4
1.4 Thermochemical biomass conversion technologies 6
1.4.1 Torrefaction 6
1.4.2 Pyrolysis 8
1.4.3 Gasification 9
1.5 Hydrothermal biomass conversion technologies 9
1.5.1 Hydrothermal carbonization 10
1.5.2 Hydrothermal liquefaction 11
1.5.3 Hydrothermal gasification 11
1.6 Current challenges and future prospects 12
1.7 Conclusion 15
References 16
1.1 Introduction
The rising global population has escalated the energy demand, and
in the current scenario, there is a constant demand for the utilization
of waste biomass as an alternative to generating clean fuel. Several
technologies have been developed for the utilization of waste to pro-
duce bioenergy. These technologies convert waste matter into differ-
ent forms of energy that can be utilized for various purposes. Energy
consumption in the form of heat energy is an important part of every
Innovations in Thermochemical Technologies for Biofuel Processing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-85586-0.00005-6
Copyright
c 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1
2 Chapter 1 Thermochemical conversion of organic waste: New horizons for production of green energy
industry in the world, which is generated from fossil fuels. In the recent
era, the world has to meet some massive environmental challenges
such as global warming, climate change and waste management. The
world is exploring new potential resources instead of fossil fuels. Bio-
fuel is one of the clean energy sources that can be produced from
biomass waste, including municipal solid waste (MSW) (Okolie et al.,
2020; Nanda and Berruti, 2021a). Due to rapid urbanization and popu-
lation growth, global energy demand is also a factor to look forward to
a clean and renewable alternative source of energy.
Several developing and developed countries have targeted to re-
duce greenhouse gas emission by adopting the partial application of
renewable energy with other energy, which is energy efficient. This
target can be achieved by reducing the utilization of fossil fuels and
increasing the adoption of biofuel (Mandova et al., 2018). The depletion
of fossil fuels and their rising process are due to the global demand
for energy (Nanda et al., 2015b). The demand for biomass is increasing
rapidly in different regions of the world. Many countries are attempt-
ing to change the strategies to balance the resources due to the high
demand for bioenergy.
Several thermochemical, hydrothermal, biological, and catalytic
technologies are available for biomass to biofuel and biochemical gen-
eration (Okolie et al., 2021a). Thermochemical technology involves the
breaking up of chemical bonds in biomass to form biochar, synthe-
sis/producer gas and bio-oil. The processes available for thermochem-
ical conversion are gasification, pyrolysis, and liquefaction (Nanda
et al., 2014). The thermochemical conversion is more superior to
the biological processes because it also produces energy from non-
biodegradable wastes (e.g., waste plastics), which is not possible by
microbial activity (Malico et al., 2019; Nanda and Berruti, 2021c; Nanda
and Berruti, 2021b). The gasification technique involves the chemical
reaction with the absence or limited supply of oxygen. The method
takes place at higher temperatures around 500–1400°C in a low or
no oxygen atmosphere to yield combustible gas mixtures. This syngas
primarily contains hydrogen (H2 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) along
with carbon dioxide (CO2 ), methane (CH4 ) and higher hydrocarbons
in the presence of a selective gasification catalyst and agent (Malico
et al., 2019; Sun et al., 2020).
Syngas is used to produce hydrogen, heat and power, biofuel,
biomethane, and biochemicals (Nanda et al., 2017; Singh et al., 2018).
Pyrolysis is a thermochemical conversion method where the biomass
is thermally decomposed into bio-oil, biochar, and gases (Singh et al.,
2021). The main products from the pyrolysis process are solid, liquid,
and gaseous fuels. Biocrude oil and bio-oil are the products recovered
from biomass by using the liquefaction and pyrolysis processes, re-
spectively (Nanda et al., 2016b). Liquefaction is a high pressure and
Chapter 1 Thermochemical conversion of organic waste: New horizons for production of green energy 3
low-temperature process carried out with or without catalyst in a

hydrogen atmosphere. The challenges are to be faced by these tech-
nologies and their future concepts in the modification of tech-
nologies that must be sustainable and cost-effective (Patra et al.,
2021a).
Bioenergy production is used for the generation of heat and power.
Different types of biomass residues and wastes have been used to
produce biofuel, are the resources for the manufacturing of bioenergy.
Some advanced thermochemical technologies are also adopted that
include fast pyrolysis, plasma gasification, supercritical water gasifica-
tion, and cofiring or co-combustion of biomass with natural gas and
coal. Thermochemical technology has limitations and compensations.
The challenges are there in the processes in some of the biomass-based
systems. The strategies can be developed as well as to follow these to
create suitable and cost-effective technology. New concepts are de-
veloping due to market demand and design mechanisms to promote
investments in bioenergy. The bioenergy production route is mostly
accepted technology as it is considered as a foremost energy source
with a low carbon footprint.
1.2 Green energy from organic wastes

Most industries generate combined heat and power (CHP) using
natural gas and waste biomass (Prasanth et al., 2021). Combustion and
gasification are two primary methods to convert the biomass to CHP.
Gasification is more efficient than the direct combustion of biomass in
electricity production. Most of the industries in the world rely on coal
and coke for energy production and utilization for different processes.
Iron and steel industries produce steel by using the blast furnace–basic
oxygen furnace pathway, which is the major emitter of greenhouse
gases. The utilization of hydrogen produced from biomass gasification
in the iron and steel plants can significantly reduce CO2 emission
when compared to the fossil fuel-based conventional methods (Okolie
et al., 2021d).
Benalcázar et al. (2017) studied three different locations, such as
the USA, the Netherland, and Brazil, to generate three products, such
as ethanol, 2,3-butanediol, and hexanoic acid, by using different feed-
stocks like pine, cornstover, sugarcane bagasse, and Eucalyptus. The
optimization of the syngas fermentation process was done using as-
sessment tools and designing of the probable supply of biomass and
the manufacturing processes was also established. The process sim-
ulation and design were based on heat and mass transfer. The eco-
nomic and environmental assessments can be carried out by using
the process simulation and the performance can be measured by the
minimum selling price (MSP), global warming potential (GWP), and

nonrenewable energy use (NREU). The optimization of the products
shows that 2,3-butanediol is the best one as compared to ethanol and
hexanoic acid concerning the MSP, GWP, and NRUE as it requires
more energy. According to the simulation, the USA has shown eco-
nomic performance than the Netherlands and Brazil. In contrast, the
environmental impact on Brazil is very much less than the other two
states. The generation of heat energy is through the gasification route
is beneficial according to the economy and environment. The hy-
brid process application is more economically viable to produce bulk
chemicals.
Biomass to bioenergy, liquid fuels, and chemicals through ther-
mochemical conversion technology is a promising and smart alter-
native resource of global energy. The pretreatment of biomass in-
creases the efficiency of the conversion technology to generate re-
newable energies (Liu et al., 2017). The carbon footprints and the cost
due to decarbonization can be minimized by using a large amount
of biomass to produce renewable energy (Okolie et al., 2021c). The
supply chain of biomass must be a hike with its sustainability. The
biomass to be selected should be cost-effective and environmentally
friendly. The category of crops and their waste can be categorized
to generate sufficient energy with low emission of greenhouse gases
(Wagner and Lewandowski, 2017). In the current scenario, biomass
and other wastes are potential and alternative resources for energy
production. The routes are many, but the thermochemical conver-
sion method is an advanced route for waste management and sus-
tainability. The industries must rush to have a “zero waste technol-
ogy” as researchers and scientists are struggling to make wealth from
waste.
1.3 Waste organic biomass

Biomass residue and waste have huge bioenergy potentials. Apart
from electricity generation, biomass can also be used for the gen-
eration of high-value chemicals (Parakh et al., 2020; Pattnaik et al.,
2021). The increasing dependency on petroleum industries for chemi-
cal production and environmental concerns involved in it encourages
the use of biomass as an alternative source. Biomass wastes genera-
tion worldwide is enormous, and the use of such underutilized waste
containing diverse chemicals can pave the way for bio-derived chemi-
cal production (Cho et al., 2020).
Dillen et al. (2013) studied the short-rotation coppice methods on
deteriorated land and reported about the reparation of the power
Chapter 1 Thermochemical conversion of organic waste: New horizons for production of green energy 5
Figure 1.1. Production of bio-oil from biomass.
capitalized in their manufacturing. The industrial materials are se-

lected, and then plantation maintenance will increase the energy pro-
duction ratio of all the rage short-rotation coppice on the deterioration
of land. The authors suggest under damnable conditions that the pure
species might perform superior to hybrids for example, on tarnished
properties, throughout numerous crop cycles, and after leaf corrosion
influxes. Despite low yields, the analysis of the unused property had an
encouraging energy balance that produced 7.9 times more energy than
the devoted property, especially from cradle to gate.
Lignocellulosic biomass comprises energy crops, agriculture crops,
grasses, wood and invasive plants (Okolie et al., 2019). The sources to
produce transport fuel are selected energy sources for lignocellulosic
biomass. Depending on the moisture content, the biomass can be di-
vided into two types, high moisture content biomass and low moisture
content biomass (McKendry, 2002). Lignocellulosic biomass can be
processed through a sequence of steps. The most important steps are
pre-processing, making bio-oil, recovery of by-product, and product.
Fig. 1.1 shows the different technologies used for getting the bio-oil
from biomass by using thermochemical conversion. The method also
shows that by using the following method, the researcher can utilize the
lignocellulosic biomass and get the bio-oil as the final product (Ibarra-
Gonzalez and Rong, 2018).
Solvent and catalyst have not been used in the cothermochem-
ical conversion method (Ferrara et al., 2014). They can be generally
managed under an oxygen-free state (Zhang et al., 2010). The pyroly-
sis method can be divided into two types, especially low-temperature
pyrolysis (<600°C) and high-temperature pyrolysis (600–800°C). The
author found that copyrolysis of biomass and fossil fuel converted into
oil within the temperature of 450°C to 600°C. Fig. 1.2 shows different
steps, like copyrolysis, cogasification, and coliquefaction method used
for the generation of products like bio-oil and synthesis gas (Yang et al.,
2019).
Manufacturing of biochar at low temperature and limited oxygen
condition to produce biochar by pyrolysis of biomass is described by
several researchers (Nanda et al., 2016a; Azargohar et al., 2019a; Patra
et al., 2021b).
Figure 1.2. Steps involving co-pyrolysis, co-gasification, and co-liquefaction methods.
1.4 Thermochemical biomass conversion

technologies
Thermochemical conversion takes place under elevated tempera-
ture, breakdowns the organic compounds of biomass into biofuels. It
is considered a simpler and effective pathway for the generation of
value-added biofuels (Chen et al., 2015). Thermochemical conversion
processes are of different types and are commonly categorized into
combustion, torrefaction, pyrolysis, gasification and hydrothermal up-
grading.
Fig. 1.3 illustrates different categories of biomass, their conversion
technology and potential end-uses. A wide variety of organic waste
residues can be converted to biofuel products using physicochem-
ical, biological and thermochemical conversion technologies. The
widely used biological technologies include anaerobic digestion and
fermentation, whereas the thermochemical technologies include car-
bonization, pyrolysis, gasification and torrefaction. Combustion or in-
cineration is a conventional thermochemical conversion technique
used to generate thermal energy from fuels. It takes place in the pres-
ence of oxygen, with which fuel’s carbon and hydrogen react to gener-
ate heat by releasing mainly CO2 and water.
1.4.1 Torrefaction
Torrefaction, a mild thermochemical conversion method, is often
classified as low-temperature pyrolysis and is usually carried out in the
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do than what I have been doing.”
“Studying, growing accomplished, falling in love, and marrying,”
replied the earl, laughing. “What would you have been doing more?”
“As it happens, sir, all this proves an excellent preparation for my
present business. But I did not know that it would; and I was
perpetually asking myself,—moreover, Letitia was perpetually asking
me,—the end and aim of my employments.”
“That was the secret, I dare say,” said the earl, “of your difficulty in
winning her. Eh, Letitia?”
“Indeed it was,” replied Letitia, blushing. “God knows what difficulty
I found in making it a difficulty; but I dared not at once give up the
calling which nature had sanctified to me, without providing for my
race being served in an equal proportion in some other way. If there
be one note sooner than another to which conscience awakes in
these times, it is to the cry of unserved humanity; and mine, having
been once thus awakened, could not be lulled asleep again; and
even your son could not soothe it till he began to promise that we
should labour together for all, as well as for each other.”
“So you married to be useful;—for no other reason on earth, my
dear?”
“No, no, no. I was useful before. I married ... for the same reason
as your son. But this reason did not make me forget my
responsibilities; that is all.”
“Ah, my dear: you do not know,—highly as you rate your art,—
what you have deprived society of by shutting yourself up here. Why,
—I saw that sot, colonel Bibber, turned into a patriot for full three
hours under your influence; and poor little lord H. that we were
speaking of just now, grew almost magnanimous for the same space
of time. These, and hundreds more, owe to you, my dear, the greater
part of whatever virtue has visited them for the last five years.”
“If so,” said lord F——, “what was the effect on better people?”
“The effect that the fine arts are ordained to produce,” said Letitia.
“They have much to answer for who defame them,—who perceive
nothing in them besides colours, and sounds, and motion,—who put
a kaleidoscope and Raphael’s Transfiguration on a level, and
recognize nothing more in a symphony of Mozart than in an Eolian
harp, and see no matter of choice between a merry Andrew and
Kean in Hamlet. They who perceive not that the fine arts are the
fittest embodiments of truth and beauty are unconscious of the
vastness of the department in which they would have man remain
unserved. Such would wonder or laugh at my view of my profession,
and discredit my hesitating to leave it for lord F——.”
“You were satisfied that you held a commission to serve man, by
means of the fine arts; you were right, my dear, as is proved by your
having made the colonel a patriot, and the little lord a hero.”
“That it was only for three hours at a time,” said Letitia, “was not
my fault, but that of the arrangements by which means and ends are
sometimes separated as far asunder as if the world would be perilled
by their coming together. In this, we might wisely copy from man in
his state of nature. Indian savages have their songs and dances
immediately before their battles; and, as long as prayers imply
devotion, they are everywhere used in senates as a prelude to the
business of the nation. But we go straight from an oratorio to dinner,
from a tragedy to sleep, from the Elgin marbles to shopping in
Regent-street; while, on the other hand, if a great national question
has to be debated, a mighty national achievement to be wrought, the
last thing its conductors would think of would be to spiritualise the
passions, and elevate the emotions, and animate the faculties by the
most appropriate means which Providence has given for that end.—I
know that this union can be only partially effected yet. I know that the
passage of the Reform Bill would have been but little helped by any
such appliances as we can at present exhibit; but it will be different
hereafter, when men have learned the true office of the fine arts, and
the ultimate objects of political reforms. Then, hundreds of years
hence, it may be,—if a new question of national renovation should
be brought forward, the senate to whom it is committed may lay hold,
with one accord, on whatever prior observance may best soothe
down their animosities, and banish their petty self-regards, and
establish their minds in that state of lofty tranquillity which alone
beseems the master-spirits of an empire.”
“In those days,” said lord F——, “there will be an end of the
absurdity of admitting the ennobling influence of the fine arts, and at
the same time holding its professors in contempt.”
“Is it, even now, anything more than a nominal contempt?” asked
Letitia. “Do not people mix up the profession and the vices of its
professors together, and then talk of contempt?”
“But those very vices are caused by the treatment of the
profession.”
“True; like all other professional vices,—like all the peculiar failings
of certain classes,—like the avarice of Jews, the romancing of
travellers, the spiritual pride of sectaries, the vanity of authors. When
prejudices are so far surmounted as that no class shall be regarded
with factitious deference or contempt, there will be an end of all
occasion to reproach painters, musicians and actors with their
tendency to self-indulgence, at the same time that proverbs and by-
words against Jews, methodists, travellers, and poets, will fall into
oblivion.”
“In those days,” said lord F——, “perhaps our peerage may
honour itself by taking up the profession of the fine arts. The time is
coming when no class of society may be idle; and if the aristocracy
plumes itself upon its refinement, this seems to be the pursuit most
congenial to its constitution.”
“If you preach your doctrine,—that all must work,—to those of your
own condition,” said the earl, “they will ask you where you got the
notion,—whether you are intimidated by the clamours of the lower
classes.”
“Not intimidated by their clamours, but moved by their condition, I
would tell them, sir; and that I derive my notion from the nature of
man and of society, and not from the dictation of any class whatever.
It is enough to melt a heart of stone to read and hear of such
distresses as have come to my knowledge since I entered office; but
I am convinced that many of the sufferers look in the wrong direction
for the causes.”
“Yet there must be much cause for complaint,” said Letitia, “when
our institutions lead to such an opposition of interests as there now is
between different ranks. They should surely work together....”
“The present opposition of interests, my dear, arises from a
scarcity of the prime necessaries of life. If there were food enough
for our people, their occupations and interests, be they as various as
the minds that adopt them, would assist and promote each other
from end to end of society. If there be a scarcity of food, men will
snatch from one another’s mouths, be they huddled together in our
manufacturing cities, or duly distributed in a Moravian settlement.
Where there is plenty, there will be a harmony,—where there is want,
there will be an opposition of interests; and it is folly to assign co-
operation and competition as the remedy and cause of distress.”
“Nay; but can it be right that starving thousands should bid their
labour against one another for bread? Can it be right that whole
families should, at this moment, be crouching down supperless in
their litter of straw, while we.... O, I am ashamed of our luxuries!...
our mirrors, and harps, and lamps,—and my very dress. I am
ashamed of them all.”
“If we gave them all away this moment, my dear, they would not be
food; and if exchanged for bread, they would only take food from the
mouths of some who want it, to give to those who cannot want it
more. Believe me, the inequality of condition we are complaining of
is rather checked than promoted by competition. Competition
equalizes the profits of industry, and increases instead of lessening
its productiveness.”
“Whence, then, comes all this misery? all this tremendous
inequality?”
“The misery arises from a deficiency of food....”
“Well; whence this deficiency of food?”
“From the tendency of eaters to increase faster than the supply of
food.”
“But if we can raise more food by co-operation than without it....”
“Even supposing we could,—unless co-operation also checked the
increase of numbers, it could prove no more than a temporary
alleviation of our grievances. In my opinion, it would, if it included
equality of condition, leave us in a worse state than it found us, in as
far as it would relax the springs of enterprise and industry, and, in
time, bring the community down into a deplorable state of sameness;
it would, if persevered in, make us into a nation of half-naked potatoe
eaters, and water-drinkers.”
The earl inquired whether anything had been heard lately of the
co-operative society formed in the neighbourhood of Weston.
“O yes!” replied lord F——. “They are enjoying the benefits of
competition to the utmost. They ascribe their prosperity to their co-
operation; but they are, in fact, a large partnership in competition
with smaller ones. They do not see how their relative position would
be altered by their absorbing all their competitors into their firm, with
no check to their numbers, while nature has imposed perpetual
checks upon the growth of their capital.”
“But cannot numbers be checked,—cannot the checks upon the
growth of capital be evaded, while we have such a wide world to
move about in?”
“Certainly, my dear: but there is no need of equality of condition to
help us to do this. Competition is more likely than co-operation to
induce prudence and foresight; and it will quicken our activity in
carrying our surplus numbers to distant fertile lands, or in bringing
the produce of distant fertile lands among our own people, instead of
tempting us to waste more and more of our capital continually in
turning up inferior lands at home, as the co-operatives would have
us do.”
“But were not you telling me that your rent-roll becomes more
valuable as time passes? Are not landholders’ incomes increasing
perpetually under the present system?”
“They are; but this is the consequence, not of competition, but of
the varying qualities of the land, the tillage of every new grade of
which tends to lower profits and raise rents. No plan for the
distribution of home produce can affect the law by which the returns
to capital are perpetually diminished.”
“But what will be the end of it under the present system?”
“There are two extremes to which the systems of equality and
inequality of distribution respectively tend, in as far as they involve
restriction upon food by using only the produce of our own lands.
Under the equality system, there would be an ultimate scramble for
potatoes, or a worse diet still, if there were such a thing. Under our
present system, the whole produce must in time be in the hands of
the land-owners and tax-takers. Of course, we must change our
system; not, however, by discouraging competition, or abolishing
private property, but by removing all artificial restrictions upon food,
and by regulating our numbers according to our resources. The way
to bring down landlords’ rents, and to increase the profits of
cultivators, is to procure food from some better source than our own
inferior lands; and this I will prove to you by figures, the next time my
steward brings me the accounts of my farms.”
“O, that Moravian village!” exclaimed Letitia. “How often I think of
the day we spent there! There was comfort, there was abundance,
there was mutual assistance and agreement.”
“Are you quite sure, Letitia, that there was nothing in the situation
and peculiarities of the place which called off your attention from the
principle on which the society was constituted? Remember the
sunset, that evening; the golden light on the green hill side, above
the rows of Moravian dwellings. Remember your admiration of the
internal regulations,—of the women’s uniform, of the music in their
church, of the simplicity of their way of life. Remember that all this
has nothing to do with their principle of association.”
“You must no more set the accomplishments of the Moravians to
the account of community of goods, than the absurdities of the
Shakers,” observed the earl. “That some sing beautifully, and others
dance ridiculously, has nothing to do with the distribution of their
wealth.”
“No more than the ordinances of the Harmonites,” continued lord F
——. “Mr. Owen’s followers very properly refuse to be mixed up with
Moravians, Shakers, and Harmonites. Superstition has no part in
their system, either under the form of ritual observance or celibacy.
Yet they are apt to incorporate extraneous matters with their system,
which serve as allurements to a greater extent, I doubt not, than they
intend. They owe more converts than they suppose to their promises
of mansions, pleasure-grounds, coffee, alabaster lamps, and so on.
My wonder is that more are not enticed by descriptions like these,
accompanied with promises of ease, and leisure, and many other
things to be obtained in a short time, which the poor man now sees
little chance of his children’s children ever enjoying.”
“There might be alabaster lamps and damask furniture in every
house under the present system,” observed the earl, “if food enough
could be got to keep the production of capital going at its natural
rate; aye, and ease and leisure too, if our numbers were kept within
bounds. It is not so very long since shoes and stockings were worn
only in courts; and that they are now worn by peasants proves that
our capital has grown under a system of competition. That multitudes
have little ease and no leisure is the fault of over-population, which
would be rather aggravated than lessened under a system whose
very essence it is to cast each man’s burdens upon all. No man need
scruple to have twenty of his children gracing the dinner-table of a
co-operative establishment, till he should find, too late, that not all
the savings caused by extensive association can compensate for the
falling off in the produce of inferior lands, and for the new impulse
given to population. His sons and his sons’ sons must add more and
more labour to the common stock; must give up, first, damask and
alabaster, then broadcloth and glass; then descend to sackcloth and
wooden trenchers, then to tatters, potatoes and water, and then....”
“Then would ensue a scramble; if anything should be left,
competition would come into play again; society would rise by its
means, and might possibly attain once more to a state in which they
might speculate on the universality of damask and alabaster.”
“Well!” exclaimed Letitia, “I shall ask to look at your steward’s
accounts, and to have an explanation of them; for I do not at all like
our present position. We must reach the extreme, you say, of having
our whole produce in the hands of land-owners and tax-takers,
unless we change our system.”
“Yes, my dear: but by change of system, I do not mean convulsion.
All might be set on a safe footing by timely care, the removal of
restrictions, the diffusion of intelligence. There is nothing in all this,
threatening to public dignity or private safety. There is nothing to
lessen the security of property, or to endanger the rights of any
class; but quite the contrary: for property is never so secure as when
it most abounds; and rights are never so well respected as in the
absence of temptation to infringe upon them.”
“By change, then, you mean progression, without fear of
subversion.”
“Just so; the progression of society from an advanced into a higher
state. What is there in such progression that is not as beautiful in
theory as it is found to be necessary in practice?”
From this hour, the progression of society, of which Letitia had
long dreamed, on which she had often speculated, began to assume
distinctness in her mind, and to form a large part of her conversation
when she happened to be with those to whom she could speak most
of what was most in her thoughts. Whenever she heard of misery
and crime on a large scale, she satisfied herself that the national
demand of progression had not yet been sufficiently attended to.
When she heard that her lord’s rents ought to be more, but were,
from the difficulty of collecting them, less than formerly, she sighed
for the time when an unrestricted provision of food (unrestricted by
state-laws) should check the rise of rents. Whenever she sat down
by her husband’s side to hear curious tales of the doings of large
speculators or eminent merchants, or of the sufferings of large
classes of agricultural or manufacturing labourers, she learned
something that made her wonder and lament, that, while the natural
laws of production and distribution work out evenly their balance of
results, the tendency of legislation thus far seems to be to clog and
thwart them, and delay the progression in intelligence and comfort
which must arise out of their unobstructed operation. She saw that, if
the universal interest of society was allowed to be the moving spring
of the social economy, all would be served; and that if many yet
remain unserved, it is on account of other movements being made to
interfere with it—the petty springs of narrow and mistaken interests;
so that partial protection brings on general hardship, and arbitrary
stimulus, a condition of general suffering.
Before going down to Weston, Letitia had become prepared to
make her way with the steward, the co-operating workmen in the
village, and all who could throw light on the past and present state of
property in the place. Many a conversation and calculation had she
also gone through with Thérèse on the subject of shop-keeping in
Paris; and all that Maria told of Waldie’s business went to the same
account of information. It made poor Maria smile sometimes in the
midst of a fit of anxiety to find that her children’s babble savoured of
political economy, when they had been spending a morning with their
aunt. They were more ready then than at other times to wonder why
they had dolls in the nursery, and picture-books in the parlour, and a
shell-grotto in the garden, when many other little children had no
playthings; and why poor Ned who swept the crossing was so much
more ragged than their errand boy, when Ned worked the hardest of
the two, and was often out in the cold and the rain besides. Almost
babies as they were, they could sometimes find out very sage little
reasons for these things, when put on the right scent by aunt Letitia
or her pupil Thérèse.
Chapter IV.
MORE NOVELTY.
At length came September, with its utter dulness in town, and its
busy brightness in the country. No parliament, no ministry, no court,
with whose proceedings to diversify the daily papers; but instead, a
reporting of the progress of certain noble lords and patriotic
gentlemen from one country seat to another, with accurate
calculations of the quantity of game bagged by each. Now were
expresses hurrying to and fro in search of the runaway men in
power. Now were ancient ladies proudly leaning on the arms of sons,
who were happy in being allowed breathing time to watch the
autumn sunsets from the terraces of their stately castles. Now were
the young heirs of rank and wealth initiated by playful papas into the
mysteries of riding and sham shooting. Many a little lord was now
mounted on his pony to adventure forth as far as the park gates,
while mamma and sisters waved their handkerchiefs from afar, and
careful grooms waited to lead him back safe. Many such a little
rogue carried his mimic fowling-piece into the stubble, and learned
not to wink or flinch when papa brought down a bird, or coaxed the
gamekeeper to lend him a brace or two to carry when they should
come in sight of home and the girls. Many a tenant now put himself
in the way of a greeting from his landlord, resting on a stile, or pacing
his way slowly through a field. Many a state secret, that the public
would fain have known, was dismissed for some such freak as
snatching at a high hazel twig, or leaping a gate. Many a fair family
group of riders was seen threading green lanes, or cantering over
downs, or appearing and disappearing in the clumpy drives of a
park,—graceful boys, and high-born girls, leading their father in
search of some new beauty which it turns out he discovered in like
manner, when he was a pleasure-loving youth instead of a
statesman. Now, in the golden noon, was the boat seen to unfurl its
snowy sail, and glide in rivalship of grace with the swans which
diverged on either hand to let the vessel have its way without
disturbing their serenity. He who has guided, or may guide, the helm
of the state, now condescends to steer a less majestic bark on a
calmer element; and instead of the prayers, threats and blessings of
an empire, bends his ear to the prattle of his little ones, or to the
rustling of a startled deer, bounding from the thicket as the vessel
nears the shore. Not now too busy to observe whether rain or
sunshine be without, the recreated statesman finds in either case
equal pleasure and repose. His lady’s nursery and boudoir, his sons’
classics, his daughters’ music, his library, his billiard table, and withal
some peculiar and long relinquished pet pursuit, give him as much
pleasure on a rainy day, as the flower-garden, the fish-pond and
poultry-yard when the sky is blue overhead. He sighs over his past
toils, reminds his spouse of their wedding sojourn at Chamouni, and
at intervals quotes Virgil to the lad behind his chair, and whispers
Pope to the little lady netting at his elbow. Statesmanship should
have pleasures worthy of its toils; and so thought Letitia when her
husband first mutely pointed out to her the woods of Weston.
Sweet was the leisure of the first afternoon, which gave promise of
what should be done at future intervals of leisure;—intervals not
likely to be too frequent to retain their charm. His lordship had
brought his business and its apparatus with him; but for this day all
was laid aside. Within half an hour after alighting from the carriage,
and while dinner was being served up, my lord and lady were in the
rosery, observing on what must have been its beauty a few weeks
before, and the one pointing out and the other following with eager
eyes the tracts among the hanging woods which had to be explored,
the points of view which must be visited, one at sunrise, one in the
glowing noon, another in the still evening. As soon as dinner was
over, they were out again, that Letitia might see the ruins of the old
abbey before the sunlight should have departed. Her heart melted
within her when she saw the long shadows of the lofty arch extended
on the velvet turf, motionless except when a bird took wing from
among the ivy, and set its boughs dancing. The rooks sailed in
circles above the stately ruin, and the thrush piped from the
evergreen covert which shut in the retired nook in which it stood. The
sun-dial also marked the silent lapse of time, although there was
usually none to lay the lesson to heart.
“This is the place, love,” said lord F——.
“And you would have had me come without you,” said Letitia, after
a long pause.
“We have some weeks yet, to be sure, to enjoy it. This is the last
spot that looks desolate as winter comes on. No leafless trees, no
strewn blossoms! The wall-flowers there on the pinnacle flourish late;
and all is green and bright till the snow falls.”
“And after, surely,” said Letitia. “I should like to see icicles
glistening on these arches, springing grey from the sheeted snow. I
should like to see the ivy sprays bending under their white burden, or
shaking it off in a shower of sparkles at the breeze’s bidding. O let us
come here at Christmas!”
“If we do, you may chance to see another sight. You will see tracks
of small feet in the snow, and catch some little girl, in her red cloak,
stealing from the Wishing-Well.”
“The Wishing-Well! O where?”
“It springs from under an old stump behind this wall. Have you any
wishes?”
“I will make some for the superstition’s sake.”
And immediately Letitia might be seen unbonneted, kneeling on
the consecrated stone, and drinking the draught her husband had
filled for her. Thus was she seen, as presently appeared. A voice
reached them from one side, praying that her ladyship’s wishes
might come to pass, be they what they might, as they must be for
good and no harm to the people under her. Letitia sprang up,
laughing, and her husband replaced her hat, calling to the well-
wisher to show himself. He did so, not in the shape of a hardy
labourer, with his farming or gardening tools on his shoulder; nor yet
of a picturesque old man bending beneath his faggot. Such might
better have beseemed the place: but this was a middle-aged,
shrewd-looking little man, whom one would have guessed to be
town-bred. He came forward, saying that he had a message for her
ladyship from his wife;—my lord knew his wife.
“Not I,” said his lordship. “I did not know you had a wife.”
“May be not, my lord; but you know the woman. She that keeps
the grocery shop, as you turn the corner in the village, your lordship
remembers.”
“What! Nanny Sweet? So you have taken her to wife since I saw
you last.”
“Yes, my lord. She has a very good business, or had before the
equality folks set up a store against us. I don’t like equality, not I. But
my wife sends word, my lady....”
“You do not like equality!” interrupted Letitia. “If there was equality,
you know, you would not need to mind who set up a store, and what
came of your wife’s grocery business.—And do not you like this
place too,—these woods, and the deer, and the lake?”
White lauded the grandeur and beauty of Weston.
“Well; this place would be as much yours as ours if there was
equality. You might fish on the lake, and shoot in the preserves,
and....”
“And lie down to sleep in the sun here beside the well,” continued
lord F——; “and all without asking anybody’s leave.”
“I thank you kindly, my lord; but I like sleeping in my bed, if I sleep
at all, unless it be dozing over my pipe, while Jack is reading the
news at the Duke’s Head. The only time I went fishing, I fell into the
water; so you’ll not soon find me in a boat again. My wife and I like a
chicken now and then, on Sundays; so a share of your poultry-yard
would be welcome perhaps; and, as for the deer and game, I leave it
to other folks to get out of their warm beds for the sake of it. It would
not answer to me to be laid by with the rheumatism for such a cause,
you see.”
“But there would be no poaching if there was equality,” said Letitia,
laughing. “Cannot game be shot in the daytime?”
“By none but gentlemen, my lady, as I have always heard.
However, the equality folks have no more game, as far as I know,
than other people. The most they pretend to is to have plenty of
butcher’s meat.—What I pretend to, and Nanny too, is to get our
bread honestly; and so, my lady, she bade me tell you that she has
laid in a new stock, hearing your ladyship was coming, and has lost
already by its being September instead of June. Light ginghams for
morning wear....”
“I thought your wife was a grocer.”
“Grocer and draper, my lady. If your ladyship should find the
mornings chilly, as they will be soon, perhaps you would look at her
stuffs;—a very pretty variety of browns, as you will see, my lady. And
her tea and sugar is of the best; and as for her snuffs....”
“O, I must make acquaintance with her snuffs, of course. Have you
a pinch about you?”
“And what is your occupation now, White?” inquired lord F——.
“The last thing I had to do, my lord, was lining your lordship’s pew
at church, and covering the hassocks.”
“And what did your priest say to that?”
“Lord, sir, I cleared scores with the priest long ago; ever since I
was employed to white-wash the Baptist chapel.”
“Were you once a Catholic?” inquired Letitia.
“Yes, my lady. There was carving work to do at Sir William’s
chapel, and I got a good long job.”
“And were a Catholic while it lasted, and a Baptist after white-
washing the meeting-house?”
“To be sure, my lady; I took a part in the week-day meetings after
that.”
“Till you were employed to line my pew; and now, I dare say, you
are a very good churchman?”
“I hope to be so, my lord. Your lordship may laugh, but I know what
manners is. I wouldn’t be so unhandsome as to take work at one
place, and attend at another.”
“So your interest has nothing at all to do with it, White; only
manners. But I wonder now what you think your religion is worth, if
you can change and change again as you have done?”
“Why, my lord, I think religion is a very good thing, as long as it
does not come in one’s way: but one must make sacrifices to duty,
as all the clergy tell us; and is it not my duty to get my living the best
way I can?”
“Well, White; tell your wife I will step down to see her stock, some
day soon. I do not at present take snuff; but whenever I do, I will be
her customer.”
Thérèse and her mistress kept one another waiting this night. The
housekeeper, who was much amused with Thérèse’s broken English
and unbroken simplicity, invited her out to a turn in the shrubberies
when tea was sent in, and she was sure of not being wanted for an
hour or two. When they came in again, they found that their master
and mistress had once more wandered forth, tempted by the rising of
the clear full moon behind the woods. After sitting nearly an hour in
the dressing-room, Thérèse put faith in the housekeeper’s prophecy
that her master would stay abroad till after midnight, like a child as
he always was, or one that lived on air, the first few days after his
coming down from town. Thérèse looked out and longed for another
ramble. The dressing-room lamp shed a pearly light through the
room; but a golden planet hung over the opposite beechen grove: a
small bright fire burned in the grate; but it was less cheering than the
bracing evening air: the time-piece ticked drowsily amidst the
silence; but it was less soothing than the coming and going of the
night-breeze among the elms in the green walk. Thérèse could not
resist. Once more she ran out, promising herself that she would be
back in ten minutes,—long before her mistress should be ready for
her. In an hour, startled by the striking of the village clock, she
returned, and found Letitia, half undressed, still gazing from the
window.
“Ah, madam!” cried Thérèse, terrified; “I am very, very wrong....”
As she hastened, with trembling hands, to throw off her cloak, and
arrange the toilet-table, appealing the while to the moon and other
temptations, Letitia, under a sudden impulse, ran and kissed the
astonished Thérèse, crying, “O Thérèse, how happy we shall be
here!” Thérèse returned the kiss again and again before she stopped
to consider what she was about. As soon as Letitia could repress her
inclination to laugh, she observed that they seemed all to have set
aside common rules to-day, and to have their heads turned alike by
coming into the country. After this, Thérèse would be in waiting at the
proper hour, and she herself....
“And you, madam ...” said Thérèse, half-smiling. “You will not
make me forget that there is one in this country who loves me as
some love me at home; but this will redouble my respect, madam.”
“I hope it will, Thérèse; for I need to be reminded now and then.... I
was not always lady F——, you know; and a moon-light night makes
me forget these things sometimes. We are all equal in reality, except
when ignorance, and all that comes of ignorance, separates us from
one another; so there may be friendship,—there is friendship
between you and me, Thérèse.”
“The knowledge which you have given me, madam, will make this
friendship my secret treasure. No one will know it who cannot also
be your friend.—But many ladies put confidence in their maids, and
tell them such things as I have never heard from you. Mrs. Philips....”
“Mrs. Philips, I suspect, Thérèse, had much more to tell than she
ever was told; at least, her secrets were of a kind that will never be
known to come from me. Your confessor shall never have to warn
you against me,—unless, indeed, it be my heresy. I would not spoil
you, my dear; and that is the reason why I keep you so much with
me. It would be hard if I did not love you and let you love me. Now
go to bed; and when the sun shines, instead of the moon, we must
forget all the wild things we have done this first day.”
“I shall never be fit to be a countess,” was her confession to lord F
——; “I kissed my maid last night.”
“What, Philips!”
“O no, no. That would be idiotcy. Philips is at Brighton, you know,
where lady Frances spoils her by a more pernicious familiarity than
mine with Thérèse. But really this girl wins one’s heart as if she had
been born one’s younger sister.”
“I dare say she is some countess, or countess’s daughter in
disguise; or so some romantic ladies might fancy.”
“Ladies who think that nobility is only hereditary. There is disguised
nobility in Thérèse; but her patent is sealed with an impress which
there are few to recognize, and it is deposited where not many
trouble themselves to look for it.”
“Side by side with yours, love. Happily, your nobility of that better
kind needs be disguised no more than the lesser which you have
acquired. This was the chief satisfaction I had in giving you the
lesser.”
“We will look among the equality folks, as White calls them, for
specimens of natural nobility. According to their theory, such always
assumes its rank among them, does it not?”
“This is one of the professed objects of their system; but it is not
fair to look for its fulfilment in such small societies as they have yet
been able to form. Master minds are thinly sown.”
“There needs not equality of outward condition,” observed Letitia,
“to make the best minds master minds. Those who, by virtue of a
patent of mental nobility, have held sway over the national mind,
have been of all ranks.”
“And will so continue to be; for, as long as men are unlike one
another, there will be a distinction of ranks, though the distinction
may be maintained by a better principle than heritage. Rank and
wealth will, I trust, be in time distributed according to natural laws;
but degrees of rank and wealth there will always be; and the
advocates of a system of equality would greatly promote their cause
by a frank recognition of this truth. While all evidence from which a
judgment can be formed is before them, and they come to a
conclusion in direct opposition to the evidence, I cannot, however
much I may respect them on some accounts, think them wise and
safe guides of the people. The necessity of inequality of condition
may be established thus.”
“But first tell me whether their favourite principle of co-operation
necessarily involves equality of condition.”
“They would tell you ‘yes.’ I say ‘no.’ They hold that competition is
both the cause and effect of inequality of condition; whereas certain
advocates of co-operation in another country hold, (and I think
wisely,) that their principle stands a better chance where a gradation
of rank and property is allowed. I so far agree with these last as to
believe the time to be discernible when co-operation, in a certain
sense, shall prevail,—meaning thereby, when all interests shall be
harmonized instead of opposed; but that this includes equality of
condition, I cannot allow, since varieties of character seem to me to
forbid such equality.”
“There must be an inequality of physical and mental powers, at all
events.”
“Surely; and therefore an inequality in the produce of individual
labour. No one labours, or ever will labour, without a view to the
fruits; and those fruits, however appropriated, are property. If a giant
produces ten times as much as a dwarf, and each is allowed the
same middle portion of the fruits, for his maintenance and
enjoyment, is it to be supposed that the giant will trouble himself
henceforth to produce more than the dwarf?”
“He will be more likely to seize some of the dwarf’s portion.”
“Certainly; and hence it is clear that the only security of society lies
in awarding to all their rights, and enforcing upon all their duties; and
what are rights but a man’s exclusive power over his own produce?
What are his duties but allowing to others the possession of their
produce?”
“You do not think then that the giant and the dwarf would be alike
contented with having everything they could want or wish for
administered to them in return for a certain portion of their labour.
You do not look forward to the lion dandling the kid.”
“I should be afraid the lion would be dandling the kid when he
ought to be out in quest of food. If there was no inducement to giants
to produce more than dwarfs, there would soon be little to administer
to anybody. The consumption of giants would soon have to be
provided for by the labour of a community of dwarfs.”
“The giants would foresee this, and then....”
“Instead of working harder for no recompense, they would
withdraw,—the mightiest first, and then the next strongest, and so
on, till the weakest of the dwarfs would be left to shift for themselves
as they best might.”
“And then would come the days of potatoes and wooden
trenchers, of which you were speaking one day.—But this is
supposing men to have the same passions and desires that they
have now; whereas they are to be educated into a better state.”
“With all my heart: but the utmost that education can do is to
extend man’s views, to exalt his aims, to strengthen and vivify his
powers,—not to change his nature. His nature involves inequality of
powers; and this decree of Providence can never be set aside, or its
operation neutralized by any decree of man that the fruits of those
powers shall be equally divided.”
“Certainly not; for such a decree of man involves injustice. If the
giant feels it to be unjust that he must give to others the fruits of his
labour, the dwarf may also complain that he enjoys no more than the
giant, though he works ten times as hard.”
“The dwarf’s complaint would thus be against Providence, and the
giant’s against man; but both show that equality is an arbitrary state,
good neither for each nor for all. Nothing but compulsion would
retain the giant in it long; and thus it is clear that, where there is
liberty, there cannot be equality.”
“What becomes of the old cry of Liberty and Equality?”
“It relates, I imagine, to an equality of rights. It means an open field
and fair play to every one. This kind of equality I am doing all I can in
my office to procure, by doing away with the protection to some
which imposes burdens upon others. By the same principle I am
bound to oppose that arbitrary equality which enriches the weak with
the fruits of the strongman’s labours.”
“But there is no force used. All who bind themselves to equality do
it voluntarily.”
“Certainly. The only applicable force is force of argument, and the
opposition I bring is an opposition of reasons. If these should not
prevail, a little experience will soon finish the business. I am only
sorry that any should be dazzled with a delusive prospect of ease
and luxury, when their efforts should be guided in another direction
for the relief of their grievous burdens. At a time when every one
should be bent on regulating the labour market, providing for the
utmost permanent growth of capital, and lessening the burdens of
taxation, we cannot spare any from these grand objects to be urging
on the increase of capital at the expense of a much greater increase
of population, and amusing themselves with visions of what can
never be achieved by the means they propose. Man must and will be
better served as the world grows older; but it will be by giving the
eternal laws of society fair play, and not by attempting to subvert
them. I shall be surprised if you hear anything from our neighbours in
the village which will not bear the construction I have put upon the
system as laid down by its originators.”
“Suppose I make myself popular among them at once by telling
them my tale of last night.”
“There is no need, my dear. I trust they do us the justice to believe
that our affections graduate according to a truer scale than that of
hereditary rank.”
“You have shown that they do by marrying me.”
“All people show it in the most important circumstances of their
lives,—in their attachments. Alas for man, if the movements within
must correspond with the outward state! Whom then would kings
love?”
“And (what is more important) how should the poverty-stricken
look up through the ranks above him, and say, with hope in his eye
and assurance in his voice, ‘I am a brother?’ How else should the
stirring thought be kept alive in him that his rights will not be for ever
overlaid, his claims not be for ever incompatible with those of his
brethren? Natural affinities are ever acting, even now, in opposition
to circumstance. They will in time direct us to the due control of
circumstance. Meanwhile, let no class imagine that any other class
denies the existence of these affinities, or resists their workings.—I
will go and see how they are acting in the village.—Shall I bring you
some of Mrs. White’s snuff?”
“Why, thank you, I am not aware of any affinity between a rappee
canister and my nostrils. But the old sexton is a snuff-taker. Call
upon him by all means, and show him that you understand his
likings. He will gratify some of yours, if you find him in a talkative
mood.”

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Innovations in Thermochemical

Technologies for Biofuel Processing

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Typeset by Aptara, New Delhi, India

Chapter 1 Thermochemical conversion of organic waste: New horizons

Chapter 2 Progress in biomass fast pyrolysis: An outlook of modern

Chapter 3 Production of solid and liquid fuels for energy

Chapter 4 Pyrolytic valorization of an invasive crop (Phragmites) to

Chapter 5 State-of-the-art practices to upgrade biomass fast

5.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

Chapter 6 Biofuel production with integrated pyrolysis and catalytic

Chapter 7 Thermochemical valorization of oil palm biomass to

7.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178

Chapter 8 Vegetable oil-based feedstocks for biofuel production:

Chapter 9 Advanced biofuels: Deoxygenation and

Chapter 10 Recent progress in biomass air gasification using

Chapter 11 Hydrothermal gasification of biomass for hydrogen

Chapter 12 Combination of atmospheric pressure plasma with catalysts

Dr. Sonil Nanda

of Canada, the Combustion Institute-Canadian Section, and Engineers

Global warming, climate change, pollution, fluctuating fuel prices,

insights into bio-oil upgrading over a catalyst in terms of multiple

low-temperature process carried out with or without catalyst in a

1.2 Green energy from organic wastes

minimum selling price (MSP), global warming potential (GWP), and

1.3 Waste organic biomass

Figure 1.1. Production of bio-oil from biomass.

capitalized in their manufacturing. The industrial materials are se-

Figure 1.2. Steps involving co-pyrolysis, co-gasification, and co-liquefaction methods.

1.4 Thermochemical biomass conversion

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