Pyrolysis study of hydrothermal carbonization-treated digested sewage sludge using a Py-GC/MS and a bench-scale pyrolyzer

The disposal of digested sewage sludge is becoming a global problem. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) combined with the pyrolysis of digested sewage sludge was investigated by using a new conversion route for the exploitation of sewage sludge in energy applications. The thermochemical properties of the material were investigated by using HTC pre-treatments, thermogravimetric analyses, pyrolysis tests in Py-GC/MS and a benchscale fixed bed reactor at temperatures of 450, 550, and 650 degrees C. It was found that the thermal decomposition of the hydrothermally treated digested sewage sludge takes place in a two-stage reaction. After pyrolysis, the ash in the sample was oxidized in the O-2 atmosphere at 900 degrees C. Therefore, a new characterization method for determination of the non-oxdized ash content and fixed carbon content was proposed. The result from Py-GC/MS shows that the abundance of aromatic hydrocarbons in pyrolytic vapors present a positive correlation with increased temperature. In the bench-scale experiments, the highest HHV of the organic fraction was obtained at 650 degrees C as 38.46 MJ/kg.