Hydrothermal Carbonization: A Pilot-Scale Reactor Design for Bio-waste and Sludge Pre-treatment

The purpose of the paper is to illustrate the basis of the design of a pilot-scale reactor built to convert putrescent and high-water content biowaste into a stabilized product by using the Hydrothermal Carbonization process (HTC). The hydrothermal carbonization of selected biowaste has been previously studied in a bench-scale reactor to optimize the process parameters such as the temperature, reaction time, water-to-dry matter ratio and then scaled up at a scale 30 times larger. The new pilot-scale reactor has a volume of 0.1 m(3) and has been designed and certified to be operated at 300 degrees C and 86 bar, allowing a wide range of operating conditions. The design has been structured in two steps: process design (a) and mechanical design (b). The main results of the process design step have been: the installed heat power, the method to provide and control the heating, the minimum reaction time necessary to reach a given yield. The mechanical design focused on the scalability of the reactor, the extraction of reaction products from the reactor at the end of process and increasing of reliability and safety. The designed reactor has been then built, commissioned, and operated in such a way to validate the design criteria and hypotheses. The comparison between the experimental results and the design input dataset confirmed the correctness of the design data input but highlighted that the thermal efficiency of the pilot scale plant was low so indicating the need to enhance it for the demonstrative plant. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the design basis of a pilot-scale reactor for converting putrescent and high-water content biowaste into a stabilized product using the Hydrothermal Carbonization process (HTC). The design process involved optimizing the process parameters in a bench-scale reactor and scaling up the reactor by 30 times. The new pilot-scale reactor, with a volume of 0.1 m(3), was designed and certified to operate at high temperature and pressure conditions. The process design focused on heat power, heating control, and reaction time, while the mechanical design focused on scalability, product extraction, and improving reliability and safety. The designed reactor was built, commissioned, and operated to validate the design criteria and hypotheses. The comparison between experimental results and design input confirmed the correctness of the design data but highlighted the need to enhance thermal efficiency.