Parmar, KR and Ross, AB (2019) Integration of Hydrothermal Carbonisation with Anaerobic Digestion; Opportunities for Valorisation of Digestate. Energies, 12 (9). 1586. ISSN 1996-1073
Abstract
Hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) has been identified as a potential route for digestate enhancement producing a solid hydrochar and a process water rich in organic carbon. This study compares the treatment of four dissimilar digestates from anaerobic digestion (AD) of agricultural residue (AGR); sewage sludge (SS); residual municipal solid waste (MSW), and vegetable, garden, and fruit waste (VGF). HTC experiments were performed at 150, 200 and 250 °C for 1 h using 10%, 20%, and 30% solid loadings of a fixed water mass. The effect of temperature and solid loading to the properties of biocoal and biochemical methane potential (BMP) of process waters are investigated. Results show that the behaviour of digestate during HTC is feedstock dependent and the hydrochar produced is a poor-quality solid fuel. The AGR digestate produced the greatest higher heating value (HHV) of 24 MJ/kg, however its biocoal properties are poor due to slagging and fouling propensities. The SS digestate process water produced the highest amount of biogas at 200 °C and 30% solid loading. This study concludes that solely treating digestate via HTC enhances biogas production and that hydrochar be investigated for its use as a soil amender.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC); anaerobic digestion (AD); waste management; biorefinery; digestate; pyrolysis; hydrochar; slagging and fouling; biogas (BMP); biodegradability |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number BBSRC Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 30 Apr 2019 11:35 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:48 |
Published Version: | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/9/1586 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/en12091586 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:145499 |