IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i10p3495-d812455.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integration of Hydrothermal Carbonisation and Anaerobic Digestion for the Energy Valorisation of Grass

Author

Listed:
  • Aaron E. Brown

    (School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK)

  • James M. Hammerton

    (School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK)

  • Miller Alonso Camargo-Valero

    (BioResource Systems Research Group, School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
    Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Campus La Nubia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales 170002, Colombia)

  • Andrew B. Ross

    (School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK)

Abstract

The integration of hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) and anaerobic digestion (AD) can overcome some of the disadvantages of thermal or biological processing alone. This study aims to investigate integrated HTC-AD across a range of integration strategies and HTC processing temperatures (150 °C, 200 °C and 250 °C) to improve the energy conversion efficiency (ECE) of grass, compared to AD alone. The separation of hydrochars (HCs) for combustion and process waters (PWs) for digestion appears to be the most energetically feasible HTC-AD integration strategy, compared to HC or HTC-slurry AD. Hydrochars represent the greater energy carrier with between 81–85% of total energy output. The ECE of grass was improved from 51% to 97% (150 °C), 83% (200 °C) and 68% (250 °C) through integrated HTC-AD. Therefore, lower HTC processing temperatures yield more favourable energetics. However, higher HTC temperatures favour more desirable HC properties as a combustion fuel. The hydrochar produced at 250 °C (HC-250) displayed the highest HHV (25.8 MJ/kg) and fixed carbon: volatile matter ratio (0.47), as well as the greatest reduction in slagging and fouling potential (ash flow temperature > 1550 °C). Overall, integrated HTC-AD is an effective energy valorisation strategy for grass. A compromise exists between the quality of hydrochar and the energetic balance. However, at 250 °C the process remains energetically feasible (EROI = 2.63).

Suggested Citation

  • Aaron E. Brown & James M. Hammerton & Miller Alonso Camargo-Valero & Andrew B. Ross, 2022. "Integration of Hydrothermal Carbonisation and Anaerobic Digestion for the Energy Valorisation of Grass," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:10:p:3495-:d:812455
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/10/3495/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/10/3495/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nizami, A.S. & Orozco, A. & Groom, E. & Dieterich, B. & Murphy, J.D., 2012. "How much gas can we get from grass?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 783-790.
    2. Marin-Batista, J.D. & Villamil, J.A. & Qaramaleki, S.V. & Coronella, C.J. & Mohedano, A.F. & Rubia, M.A. de la, 2020. "Energy valorization of cow manure by hydrothermal carbonization and anaerobic digestion," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 623-632.
    3. He, Chao & Giannis, Apostolos & Wang, Jing-Yuan, 2013. "Conversion of sewage sludge to clean solid fuel using hydrothermal carbonization: Hydrochar fuel characteristics and combustion behavior," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 257-266.
    4. Aidan M. Smith & Andrew B. Ross, 2019. "The Influence of Residence Time during Hydrothermal Carbonisation of Miscanthus on Bio-Coal Combustion Chemistry," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-21, February.
    5. Kiran R. Parmar & Aaron E. Brown & James M. Hammerton & Miller Alonso Camargo-Valero & Louise A. Fletcher & Andrew B. Ross, 2022. "Co-Processing Lignocellulosic Biomass and Sewage Digestate by Hydrothermal Carbonisation: Influence of Blending on Product Quality," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-21, February.
    6. Alessandro Chiumenti & Davide Boscaro & Francesco Da Borso & Luigi Sartori & Andrea Pezzuolo, 2018. "Biogas from Fresh Spring and Summer Grass: Effect of the Harvesting Period," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-13, June.
    7. Kiran R. Parmar & Andrew B. Ross, 2019. "Integration of Hydrothermal Carbonisation with Anaerobic Digestion; Opportunities for Valorisation of Digestate," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-17, April.
    8. 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.
    9. Kambo, Harpreet Singh & Dutta, Animesh, 2015. "A comparative review of biochar and hydrochar in terms of production, physico-chemical properties and applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 359-378.
    10. Zhang, Chaoyue & Ma, Xiaoqian & Chen, Xinfei & Tian, Yunlong & Zhou, Yi & Lu, Xiaoluan & Huang, Tao, 2020. "Conversion of water hyacinth to value-added fuel via hydrothermal carbonization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    11. Meike Nitsche & Frank Hensgen & Michael Wachendorf, 2017. "Using Grass Cuttings from Sports Fields for Anaerobic Digestion and Combustion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-11, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giovanni Esposito & Silvio Matassa & Stefano Papirio, 2022. "Biovalorization of Lignocellulosic Waste," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-3, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Deli & Sun, Zhijing & Fu, Hongyue & Liu, Zhenfei & Wang, Fang & Zeng, Jianfei & Yi, Weiming, 2024. "Upgrading of cow manure by hydrothermal carbonization: Evaluation of fuel properties, combustion behaviors and kinetics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Dilvin Cebi & Melih Soner Celiktas & Hasan Sarptas, 2022. "A Review on Sewage Sludge Valorization via Hydrothermal Carbonization and Applications for Circular Economy," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 2(4), pages 1345-1367, December.
    5. Zhang, Zhikun & Zhu, Zongyuan & Shen, Boxiong & Liu, Lina, 2019. "Insights into biochar and hydrochar production and applications: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 581-598.
    6. Moritz von Cossel & Andrea Bauerle & Meike Boob & Ulrich Thumm & Martin Elsaesser & Iris Lewandowski, 2019. "The Performance of Mesotrophic Arrhenatheretum Grassland under Different Cutting Frequency Regimes for Biomass Production in Southwest Germany," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-17, September.
    7. Gai, Chao & Chen, Mengjun & Liu, Tingting & Peng, Nana & Liu, Zhengang, 2016. "Gasification characteristics of hydrochar and pyrochar derived from sewage sludge," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 957-965.
    8. Carlos S. Ciria & Marina Sanz & Juan Carrasco & Pilar Ciria, 2019. "Identification of Arable Marginal Lands under Rainfed Conditions for Bioenergy Purposes in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, March.
    9. Liang, Wang & Wang, Guangwei & Jiao, Kexin & Ning, Xiaojun & Zhang, Jianliang & Guo, Xingmin & Li, Jinhua & Wang, Chuan, 2021. "Conversion mechanism and gasification kinetics of biomass char during hydrothermal carbonization," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 318-328.
    10. Liu, Quan & Zhang, Guanyu & Kong, Ge & Liu, Mingyang & Cao, Tianqi & Guo, Zhirui & Zhang, Xuesong & Han, Lujia, 2023. "Valorizing manure waste into green coal-like hydrochar: Parameters study, physicochemical characteristics, combustion behaviors and kinetics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    11. Wang, Tengfei & Zhai, Yunbo & Zhu, Yun & Li, Caiting & Zeng, Guangming, 2018. "A review of the hydrothermal carbonization of biomass waste for hydrochar formation: Process conditions, fundamentals, and physicochemical properties," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 223-247.
    12. Djandja, Oraléou Sangué & Duan, Pei-Gao & Yin, Lin-Xin & Wang, Zhi-Cong & Duo, Jia, 2021. "A novel machine learning-based approach for prediction of nitrogen content in hydrochar from hydrothermal carbonization of sewage sludge," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    13. Zhang, Xianwen & Deng, Hongkun & Yang, Jing & Yu, Zhenhua & Xing, Xianjun & Ma, Peiyong, 2020. "Isoconversional kinetics of pyrolysis of vaporthermally carbonized bamboo," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 701-707.
    14. Jing Hou & Bo Hou, 2019. "Farmers’ Adoption of Low-Carbon Agriculture in China: An Extended Theory of the Planned Behavior Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-20, March.
    15. Pablo J. Arauzo & Maciej P. Olszewski & Andrea Kruse, 2018. "Hydrothermal Carbonization Brewer’s Spent Grains with the Focus on Improving the Degradation of the Feedstock," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-15, November.
    16. Alessandro Chiumenti & Andrea Pezzuolo & Davide Boscaro & Francesco da Borso, 2019. "Exploitation of Mowed Grass from Green Areas by Means of Anaerobic Digestion: Effects of Grass Conservation Methods (Drying and Ensiling) on Biogas and Biomethane Yield," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-11, August.
    17. Yan, Mi & Liu, Jianyong & Yoshikawa, Kunio & Jiang, Jiahao & Zhang, Yan & Zhu, Gaojun & Liu, Yu & Hantoko, Dwi, 2022. "Cascading disposal for food waste by integration of hydrothermal carbonization and supercritical water gasification," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 914-926.
    18. Wilk, Małgorzata & Śliz, Maciej & Czerwińska, Klaudia & Gajek, Marcin & Kalemba-Rec, Izabela, 2024. "Improvements in dewaterability and fuel properties of hydrochars derived from hydrothermal co-carbonization of sewage sludge and organic waste," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    19. Kumar, Mayank & Olajire Oyedun, Adetoyese & Kumar, Amit, 2018. "A review on the current status of various hydrothermal technologies on biomass feedstock," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 1742-1770.
    20. Eunhye Song & Seyong Park & Seongkuk Han & Eusil Lee & Ho Kim, 2022. "Characteristics of Hydrothermal Carbonization Hydrochar Derived from Cattle Manure," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-14, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:10:p:3495-:d:812455. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

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

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

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

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

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

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