scholarly journals Conversion of Slaughterhouse Wastes to Solid Fuel Using Hydrothermal Carbonization

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1768
Author(s):  
Jongkeun Lee ◽  
Sungwan Cho ◽  
Daegi Kim ◽  
JunHee Ryu ◽  
Kwanyong Lee ◽  
...  

In this study, cattle and pig slaughterhouse wastes (SHWs) were hydrothermally carbonized at 150–300 °C, and the properties of SHW-derived hydrochar were evaluated for its use as a solid fuel. The results demonstrated that increasing the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) treatment temperature improved the energy-related properties (i.e., fuel ratio, higher heating value, and coalification degree) of both the cattle and pig SHW-derived hydrochars. However, the improvements of cattle SHW-derived hydrochars were not as dramatic as that of pig SHW-derived hydrochars, due to the lipid-rich components that do not participate in the HTC reaction. In this regard, there was no merit of using HTC treatment on cattle SHW for the production of hydrochar or using the hydrochar as a solid fuel in terms of energy retention efficiency. On the other hand, a mild HTC treatment at approximately 200 °C was deemed suitable for converting pig SHW to value-added solid fuel. The findings of this study suggest that the conversion of SHWs to hydrochar using HTC can provide an environmentally benign method for waste treatment and energy recovery from abandoned biomass. However, the efficiency of energy recovery varies depending on the chemical composition of the raw feedstock.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8229
Author(s):  
Sebastian Paczkowski ◽  
Victoria Knappe ◽  
Marta Paczkowska ◽  
Luis Alonzo Diaz Robles ◽  
Dirk Jaeger ◽  
...  

The worldwide transformation from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources will increase the demand for biomass. However, the ash content of many available biomass sources exceeds the limits of national standards. In this study, short-rotation coppice willow biomass was hydrothermally treated at 150, 170 and 185 °C. The higher heating value increased by 2.6% from x¯ = 19,279 J × g−1 to x¯ = 19,793 J × g−1 at 185 °C treatment temperature. The mean ash content was reduced by 53% from x¯ = 1.97% to x¯ = 0.93% at 170 °C treatment temperature, which was below the limit for category TW1b of the European pellet standard for thermally treated biomass. The nitrogen, sulfur and cadmium concentrations were reduced below the limits for category TW1b of the European biomass pellet standard (N: from 0.52% to 0.34%, limit at 0.5%; S: from 0.051% to 0.024%, limit at 0.04%; Cd: from 0.83 mg × kg−1 to 0.37 mg × kg−1, limit at 0.5 mg × kg−1). The highest reduction rates were sampled for phosphor (80–84%), potassium (78–90%), chlorine (96–98%) and lithium (96–98%). The reduction behavior of the elements is discussed according to the chemical processes at the onset of hydrothermal carbonization. The results of this study show that HTT has the potential to expand the availability of biomass for the increasing worldwide demand in the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Jae Wook Chung ◽  
Gabriel Gerner ◽  
Ekaterina Ovsyannikova ◽  
Alexander Treichler ◽  
Urs Baier ◽  
...  

Background: The provision of safe sanitation services is essential for human well-being and environmental integrity, but it is often lacking in less developed communities with insufficient financial and technical resources. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has been suggested as an alternative sanitation technology, producing value-added products from faecal waste. We evaluated the HTC technology for raw human waste treatment in terms of resource recovery. In addition, we constructed and tested a low-cost HTC reactor for its technical feasibility. Methods: Raw human faeces were hydrothermally treated in a mild severity range (≤ 200 °C and ≤ 1 hr). The total energy recovery was analysed from the energy input, higher heating value (HHV) of hydrochar and biomethane potential of process water. The nutrient contents were recovered through struvite precipitation employing process water and acid leachate from hydrochar ash. A bench-scale low-cost reactor (BLR) was developed using widely available materials and tested for human faeces treatment. Results: The hydrochar had HHVs (23.2 - 25.2 MJ/kg) comparable to bituminous coal. The calorific value of hydrochar accounted for more than 90% of the total energy recovery. Around 78% of phosphorus in feedstock was retained in hydrochar ash, while 15% was in process water. 72% of the initial phosphorus can be recovered as struvite when deficient Mg and NH4 are supplemented. The experiments with BLR showed stable operation for faecal waste treatment with an energy efficiency comparable to a commercial reactor system. Conclusions: This research presents a proof of concept for the hydrothermal treatment of faecal waste as an alternative sanitation technology, by providing a quantitative evaluation of the resource recovery of energy and nutrients. The experiments with the BLR demonstrate the technical feasibility of the low-cost reactor and support its further development on a larger scale to reach practical implementation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 05005
Author(s):  
Tamás Darázs ◽  
Jarmila Šalgovičová

Research background: Safe treatment of waste in a way that ensures that future generations of the population can live and raise their offspring in a healthy habitat is one of the challenges we need to address. It is globalization that is becoming the basis for the introduction of such business in our regions, in which companies convince of their good intentions with examples from abroad. Purpose of the article: The work approaches the process of environmental change aimed at fulfilling the essence of the concept of the circular economy. The practical output of the paper is the evaluation of the marketing activities of ewia a. s., the aim of which is to build a facility for energy recovery of waste in the locality of Šaľa and Trnava. The paper presents the results of research focused on the views of the affected population on waste treatment and the construction of a facility for energy recovery of waste. Methods: The work uses empirical methods of observation and experiment to collect and evaluate information. The logical method used in the presented article is comparison and scientific methods are supplemented by analysis and synthesis. A questionnaire is used for the obtained primary data and the obtained results are processed by mathematical-statistical methods and graphical display methods. Findings & Value added: The contribution of the work is to find out the facts about behavioural processes in the minds of consumers in the processes of introducing the circular economy, based on globalization.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bide Zhang ◽  
Mohammad Heidari ◽  
Bharat Regmi ◽  
Shakirudeen Salaudeen ◽  
Precious Arku ◽  
...  

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a useful method to convert wet biomass to value-added products. Fruit waste generated in juice industries is a huge source of moist feedstock for such conversion to produce hydrochar. This paper deals with four types of fruit wastes as feedstocks for HTC; namely, rotten apple (RA), apple chip pomace (ACP), apple juice pomace (AJP), and grape pomace (GP). The operating conditions for HTC processing were 190 °C, 225 °C, and 260 °C for 15 min. For all samples, higher heating value and fixed carbon increased, while volatile matter and oxygen content decreased after HTC. Except for ACP, the ash content of all samples increased after 225 °C. For RA, AJP, and GP, the possible explanation for increased ash content above 225 °C is that the hydrochar increases in porosity after 230 °C. It was observed that an increase in HTC temperature resulted in an increase in the mass yield for RA and GP, which is in contrast with increasing HTC temperature for lignocellulose biomass. Other characterization tests like thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) also showed that the HTC process can be successfully used to convert fruit wastes into valuable products.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 899
Author(s):  
Djordje Mitrovic ◽  
Miguel Crespo Chacón ◽  
Aida Mérida García ◽  
Jorge García Morillo ◽  
Juan Antonio Rodríguez Diaz ◽  
...  

Studies have shown micro-hydropower (MHP) opportunities for energy recovery and CO2 reductions in the water sector. This paper conducts a large-scale assessment of this potential using a dataset amassed across six EU countries (Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Spain, and Portugal) for the drinking water, irrigation, and wastewater sectors. Extrapolating the collected data, the total annual MHP potential was estimated between 482.3 and 821.6 GWh, depending on the assumptions, divided among Ireland (15.5–32.2 GWh), Scotland (17.8–139.7 GWh), Northern Ireland (5.9–8.2 GWh), Wales (10.2–8.1 GWh), Spain (375.3–539.9 GWh), and Portugal (57.6–93.5 GWh) and distributed across the drinking water (43–67%), irrigation (51–30%), and wastewater (6–3%) sectors. The findings demonstrated reductions in energy consumption in water networks between 1.7 and 13.0%. Forty-five percent of the energy estimated from the analysed sites was associated with just 3% of their number, having a power output capacity >15 kW. This demonstrated that a significant proportion of energy could be exploited at a small number of sites, with a valuable contribution to net energy efficiency gains and CO2 emission reductions. This also demonstrates cost-effective, value-added, multi-country benefits to policy makers, establishing the case to incentivise MHP in water networks to help achieve the desired CO2 emissions reductions targets.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1805
Author(s):  
Neel Patel ◽  
Bishnu Acharya ◽  
Prabir Basu

Waste seaweed that is collected at coastal regions of maritime provinces in Canada is creating ecological problems as it promotes an anoxic event, which produces nearly zero dissolved oxygen in water along with hydrogen sulfide emission. The work done in this study attempts to address this issue by producing a coal-like solid hydrochar and nutritious liquid slurry (processed water) by employing a rather recent thermo-chemical process called hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) on the seaweed. The HTC was carried out in a batch reactor system for three different reaction temperatures, 180 °C, 200 °C, 220 °C, and three different reaction times, 30, 60, and 120 min. Each of the produced hydrochars was characterized by different analytical methods. The effects of the process conditions on the yield and the properties of the hydrochar and process water were examined. The hydrochar produced at 220 °C and 120 min showed the highest carbon content (48.5%) and heating value (18.93 MJ/kg). The energy density and carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio in the hydrochar increased significantly as compared to raw seaweed. Moreover, HTC reduced the ash yield and volatile compounds of the seaweed. Thus, hydrochar can be used as a fuel for direct combustion, in soil remediation, or in carbon sequestration applications.


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