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Hydrothermal carbonization of sewage digestate at wastewater treatment works: Influence of solid loading on characteristics of hydrochar, process water and plant energetics

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  • Aragón-Briceño, C.I.
  • Grasham, O.
  • Ross, A.B.
  • Dupont, V.
  • Camargo-Valero, M.A.

Abstract

Nowadays the sludge treatment is recognized as a priority challenge to the wastewater industry due to the increasing volumes produced and tighter environmental controls for its safe disposal. The most cost-effective process for sewage sludge is the anaerobic digestion but raw digestate still contains high levels of organic matter that can be transformed into an energy carrier by using processes like Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC). In this work, the influence of solid loading (2.5, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0, 17.5, 20.0, 25.0 and 30.0% solids w/w) on the composition of hydrochar and process water was studied, together with an evaluation of product yields, solubilisation of organic carbon and biomethane potential of process waters from HTC processing (250 °C, 30- minute reaction time). Hydrochar yields ranged from 64 to 88%wt, whereas the concentration of soluble organic carbon increased from 2.6 g/L in the raw digestate to a maximum of 72.3 g/L in the process water following HTC at the highest solid loading. Furthermore, process modelling with Aspen Plus shows that the integration of AD with HTC to wastewater treatment works provides a significant positive energy balance when process water and hydrochar are considered as fuel sources for cogeneration.

Suggested Citation

  • Aragón-Briceño, C.I. & Grasham, O. & Ross, A.B. & Dupont, V. & Camargo-Valero, M.A., 2020. "Hydrothermal carbonization of sewage digestate at wastewater treatment works: Influence of solid loading on characteristics of hydrochar, process water and plant energetics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 959-973.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:157:y:2020:i:c:p:959-973
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.05.021
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    1. Halina Pawlak-Kruczek & Agnieszka Urbanowska & Lukasz Niedzwiecki & Michał Czerep & Marcin Baranowski & Christian Aragon-Briceño & Małgorzata Kabsch-Korbutowicz & Amit Arora & Przemysław Seruga & Mate, 2023. "Hydrothermal Carbonisation as Treatment for Effective Moisture Removal from Digestate—Mechanical Dewatering, Flashing-Off, and Condensates’ Processing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-9, July.
    2. Aaron E. Brown & Jessica M. M. Adams & Oliver R. Grasham & Miller Alonso Camargo-Valero & Andrew B. Ross, 2020. "An Assessment of Different Integration Strategies of Hydrothermal Carbonisation and Anaerobic Digestion of Water Hyacinth," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-26, November.
    3. Aragón-Briceño, C.I. & Pozarlik, A.K. & Bramer, E.A. & Niedzwiecki, Lukasz & Pawlak-Kruczek, H. & Brem, G., 2021. "Hydrothermal carbonization of wet biomass from nitrogen and phosphorus approach: A review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 401-415.
    4. Vishwajeet & Halina Pawlak-Kruczek & Marcin Baranowski & Michał Czerep & Artur Chorążyczewski & Krystian Krochmalny & Michał Ostrycharczyk & Paweł Ziółkowski & Paweł Madejski & Tadeusz Mączka & Amit A, 2022. "Entrained Flow Plasma Gasification of Sewage Sludge–Proof-of-Concept and Fate of Inorganics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-14, March.
    5. Jessica Quintana-Najera & A. John Blacker & Louise A. Fletcher & Douglas G. Bray & Andrew B. Ross, 2022. "The Influence of Biochar Augmentation and Digestion Conditions on the Anaerobic Digestion of Water Hyacinth," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, March.
    6. Agnieszka Urbanowska & Małgorzata Kabsch-Korbutowicz & Christian Aragon-Briceño & Mateusz Wnukowski & Artur Pożarlik & Lukasz Niedzwiecki & Marcin Baranowski & Michał Czerep & Przemysław Seruga & Hali, 2021. "Cascade Membrane System for Separation of Water and Organics from Liquid By-Products of HTC of the Agricultural Digestate—Evaluation of Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-18, August.
    7. Tomasz Hardy & Amit Arora & Halina Pawlak-Kruczek & Wojciech Rafajłowicz & Jerzy Wietrzych & Łukasz Niedźwiecki & Vishwajeet & Krzysztof Mościcki, 2021. "Non-Destructive Diagnostic Methods for Fire-Side Corrosion Risk Assessment of Industrial Scale Boilers, Burning Low Quality Solid Biofuels—A Mini Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-15, November.
    8. Aragon-Briceño, Christian & Pożarlik, Artur & Bramer, Eddy & Brem, Gerrit & Wang, Shule & Wen, Yuming & Yang, Weihong & Pawlak-Kruczek, Halina & Niedźwiecki, Łukasz & Urbanowska, Agnieszka & Mościcki,, 2022. "Integration of hydrothermal carbonization treatment for water and energy recovery from organic fraction of municipal solid waste digestate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 577-591.
    9. Wądrzyk, Mariusz & Korzeniowski, Łukasz & Plata, Marek & Janus, Rafał & Lewandowski, Marek & Michalik, Marek & Magdziarz, Aneta, 2023. "Pyrolysis of hydrochars obtained from blackcurrant pomace in single and binary solvent systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 383-394.
    10. Roberta Ferrentino & Fabio Merzari & Luca Fiori & Gianni Andreottola, 2020. "Coupling Hydrothermal Carbonization with Anaerobic Digestion for Sewage Sludge Treatment: Influence of HTC Liquor and Hydrochar on Biomethane Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-19, November.
    11. Louise Delahaye & John Thomas Hobson & Matthew Peter Rando & Brenna Sweeney & Avery Bernard Brown & Geoffrey Allen Tompsett & Ayten Ates & N. Aaron Deskins & Michael Thomas Timko, 2020. "Experimental and Computational Evaluation of Heavy Metal Cation Adsorption for Molecular Design of Hydrothermal Char," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-24, August.
    12. Czerwińska, Klaudia & Śliz, Maciej & Wilk, Małgorzata, 2022. "Hydrothermal carbonization process: Fundamentals, main parameter characteristics and possible applications including an effective method of SARS-CoV-2 mitigation in sewage sludge. A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    13. Urbanowska, Agnieszka & Niedzwiecki, Lukasz & Wnukowski, Mateusz & Aragon-Briceño, Christian & Kabsch-Korbutowicz, Małgorzata & Baranowski, Marcin & Czerep, Michał & Seruga, Przemysław & Pawlak-Krucze, 2023. "Recovery of chemical energy from retentates from cascade membrane filtration of hydrothermal carbonisation effluent," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    14. Djandja, Oraléou Sangué & Salami, Adekunlé Akim & Wang, Zhi-Cong & Duo, Jia & Yin, Lin-Xin & Duan, Pei-Gao, 2022. "Random forest-based modeling for insights on phosphorus content in hydrochar produced from hydrothermal carbonization of sewage sludge," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    15. Giorgia Tomassi & Pietro Romano & Gabriele Di Giacomo, 2021. "Modern Use of Water Produced by Purification of Municipal Wastewater: A Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-13, November.
    16. Kossińska, Nina & Grosser, Anna & Kwapińska, Marzena & Kwapiński, Witold & Ghazal, Heba & Jouhara, Hussam & Krzyżyńska, Renata, 2024. "Co-hydrothermal carbonization as a potential method of utilising digested sludge and screenings from wastewater treatment plants towards energy application," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    17. Aragón-Briceño, C.I. & Ross, A.B. & Camargo-Valero, M.A., 2021. "Mass and energy integration study of hydrothermal carbonization with anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 473-483.
    18. Ziółkowski, Paweł & Badur, Janusz & Pawlak- Kruczek, Halina & Stasiak, Kamil & Amiri, Milad & Niedzwiecki, Lukasz & Krochmalny, Krystian & Mularski, Jakub & Madejski, Paweł & Mikielewicz, Dariusz, 2022. "Mathematical modelling of gasification process of sewage sludge in reactor of negative CO2 emission power plant," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PA).
    19. Ioannis O. Vardiambasis & Theodoros N. Kapetanakis & Christos D. Nikolopoulos & Trinh Kieu Trang & Toshiki Tsubota & Ramazan Keyikoglu & Alireza Khataee & Dimitrios Kalderis, 2020. "Hydrochars as Emerging Biofuels: Recent Advances and Application of Artificial Neural Networks for the Prediction of Heating Values," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, September.
    20. Magdziarz, Aneta & Mlonka-Mędrala, Agata & Sieradzka, Małgorzata & Aragon-Briceño, Christian & Pożarlik, Artur & Bramer, Eddy A. & Brem, Gerrit & Niedzwiecki, Łukasz & Pawlak-Kruczek, Halina, 2021. "Multiphase analysis of hydrochars obtained by anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste organic fraction," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 108-118.

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