Energy recovery of livestock manure and industrial sludge by co-hydrocarbonisation coupled to pyrolysis and gasification

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of carbonaceous waste is an important way of energy recovery to obtain renewable fuels. Here, cow manure (CM) and industrial sludge (IS), two kinds of wastes with different properties, were pretreated by HTC at different temperatures. The elements migration and the physicochemical structural characteristics of hydrochar during HTC were evaluated. The pyrolysis and gasification performance of hydrochar was also studied. The results show that HTC treatment can significantly increase the carbon content and reduce the oxygen content of feedstocks, so as to obtain clean solid fuels with high energy densification and realize energy recovery from low value wastes. The distribution of pyrolysis products of co-hydrochar is close to that of IS due to the interaction between the components of CM and IS. The co-hydrochar has good gasification reactivity, showing obvious synergistic effect. There is multi-component interaction in the process of co-HTC due to the difference of feedstocks composition and properties between CM and IS. The abundant aliphatic and oxidized aliphatic hydrocarbons in IS may inhibit the polycondensation and aromatization of cellulose and hemicellulose hydrolysates in CM due to hydrogen supply or steric hindrance. Therefore, co-hydrochar has carbon structure and fuel properties close to that of IS hydrochar.

Automated summary

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is an important method for energy recovery from carbonaceous waste. This study investigated the pretreatment of cow manure and industrial sludge by HTC at different temperatures. The results showed that HTC treatment can increase carbon content and reduce oxygen content, leading to the production of clean solid fuels with high energy densification. The study also found that the distribution of pyrolysis products of co-hydrochar is similar to that of industrial sludge. The co-hydrochar has good gasification reactivity and exhibits a synergistic effect.