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Adedeji OM, Aboagye EA, Oladoye PO, Bauer SK, Jahan K. Life Cycle Assessment and Net Energy Analysis of an Integrated Hydrothermal Liquefaction-Anaerobic Digestion of Single and Mixed Beverage Waste and Sewage Sludge. CHEMOSPHERE 2024; 363:142991. [PMID: 39094705 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2024] [Revised: 07/21/2024] [Accepted: 07/30/2024] [Indexed: 08/04/2024]
Abstract
The conversion of biomass to bioenergy is one of the approaches to creating a sustainable society. In this study, the life cycle assessment and the net energy analysis of converting mixed sewage sludge and beverage waste into bioenergy via a combined hydrothermal liquefaction-anaerobic digestion (HTL-AD) system was carried out. Primary sludge (PS), winery rose lees (RL), brewery Trub (BT), the mixture of brewery trub and primary sludge (BTPS) and the mixture of winery rose lees and primary sludge (RLPS) were the feedstocks considered. Efficient energy utilization [in form of net energy ratio (NER)], and environmental emissions were evaluated. The NER of BT (2.07) and RL (1.76) increased when mixed with PS (3.18) to produce BTPS (3.20) and RLPS (2.85). Also, the HTL phase of the combined HTL-AD system produced a greater NER than the AD phase in BT, BTPS, and PS and vice-versa in RL and RLPS. Six environmental impact categories were studied namely global warming, terrestrial acidification, ionizing radiation, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity, and human non-carcinogenic toxicity. RL produced the greatest environmental impact while BTPS produced the least impact, thus indicating the advantage of feedstock combination. This study shows that the combination of feedstocks for bioenergy production in an HTL-AD system does not only increase the quality and quantity of products but also increases the overall NER as well as reducting the environmental impacts. The study also proved that an integrated HTL-AD system is an energy efficient system with greater resource utilization and less environmental footprint than the constituent systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oluwayinka M Adedeji
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, United States; Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Clean Water, Harrisburg, PA, 7105, United States.
| | - Emmanuel A Aboagye
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, 1 Nassau Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544, United States
| | - Peter Olusakin Oladoye
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida International University, Miami, 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL, 33199, United States.
| | - Sarah K Bauer
- Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Mercer University, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, GA, 31207, United States
| | - Kauser Jahan
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, United States
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Adedeji OM, Jahan K. Removal of pollutants from aqueous product of Co-hydrothermal liquefaction: Adsorption and isotherm studies. CHEMOSPHERE 2023; 321:138165. [PMID: 36804248 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2023] [Revised: 02/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is an attractive technology for the conversion of wet waste into biofuel and co-HTL has been touted to increase the quality of products. However, the recovery of energy from wastewater byproduct called aqueous co-product (ACP) is limited due to the presence of toxic inhibitory substances. Adsorption has been countenanced to remove these toxic compounds but there has not been a distinct comprehensive adsorption isotherm study to explain the interaction between the adsorbate molecules and the adsorbent sites. This study investigated the sorption mechanism of oxidizable reducing pollutants measured as chemical oxygen demand (COD); heavy metals (boron and copper); and phenols from ACP samples obtained from co-HTL of brewery trub (BT), and primary sludge (PS) onto granular and powdered activated carbon (GAC and PAC). Conventional isotherm models such as Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich were used for data analysis. Results indicated that the adsorptive capacity (qe) of PAC was greater than GAC in COD adsorption (BT-1947 > 234; BTPS-617 > 245; PS-289 > 207), boron adsorption (BTPS-70 > 7; PS-53 > 49), copper adsorption (BT-5 > 1; BTPS-3 > 2; PS-1.3 > 1.1) and phenol adsorption (BT-1340 > 356; BTPS-1587 > 253; PS-460 > 245) in mg/g, μg/g, μg/g, and μg/g respectively. Comparing the adsorption of pollutants onto PAC and GAC, this study observed that PAC followed the Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich models in the adsorption of the four pollutants while GAC followed the Freundlich and Langmuir models in the adsorption of phenol and copper, and Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich in the adsorption of COD and boron. This study proved that combining feedstock in HTL (co-HTL) does not only change the quality of the ACP but also changes the dynamics of the adsorption isotherms. The Free Energy Change (ΔG0) result showed a spontaneous reaction in the adsorption of copper and phenol. This study presents an adsorption equilibrium information for the interpretation of adsorption isotherms for the overall improvement of adsorption mechanism pathways and the effective design of adsorption systems for the treatment of ACP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oluwayinka M Adedeji
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA.
| | - Kauser Jahan
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA
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Munasinghe-Arachchige SP, Abeysiriwardana-Arachchige ISA, Delanka-Pedige HMK, Nirmalakhandan N. Biofertilizer recovery from organic solid wastes via hydrothermal liquefaction. BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY 2021; 338:125497. [PMID: 34256220 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2021.125497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2021] [Revised: 06/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) has emerged as a viable pathway for processing wet organic solid wastes (OSW) to yield biocrude oil which could be upgraded to transportation fuels and specialty chemicals. The HTL process results in two byproducts laden with high levels of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous. Recovery of phosphates in the byproducts as struvite and ammoniacal-nitrogen (NH4-N) as ammonium sulfate is proposed here as a promising pathway to utilize the HTL byproducts. A case study of this pathway using algal biomass as a model OSW yielded 8.2 g struvite/100 g OSW and 10.7 g ammonium sulfate/100 g OSW. Heavy metal levels in both struvite and ammonium sulfate crystals were below EPA regulations for land application. This biofertilizer recovery pathway could render OSW processing by HTL a greener alternative to anaerobic digestion, offering feedstock versatility, substantially smaller footprint, and a higher degree of OSW valorization.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - N Nirmalakhandan
- Civil Engineering Dept., New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA.
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Aierzhati A, Stablein MJ, Wu NE, Kuo CT, Si B, Kang X, Zhang Y. Experimental and model enhancement of food waste hydrothermal liquefaction with combined effects of biochemical composition and reaction conditions. BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY 2019; 284:139-147. [PMID: 30927651 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.03.076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2018] [Revised: 03/13/2019] [Accepted: 03/14/2019] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Excessive food waste presents an opportunity to simultaneously alleviate waste and produce renewable resources. The present work uses hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) with elevated temperatures (280-380 °C) and times (10-60 min) to convert categorized food residues collected from a university campus dining hall into biocrude oil. Analysis of distinct feedstocks presented different biochemical compositions (protein, carbohydrate, and lipid) and yielded between 2 and 79% biocrude oil for the respective optimized HTL temperatures and times. Reaction pathways and elemental distributions (C,H,N) elucidated HTL product qualities based on feedstocks and optimized reaction conditions. Both descriptive HTL process energy recoveries and consumption ratios are included. An improved predictive model was able to accurately determine biocrude oil yield (R2adj 98.3%) of different food wastes under different reaction conditions, as well as predict previously published data (R2 94.3%). Combined experimental and analytical results were used to assess the sustainability and robustness of the HTL process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aersi Aierzhati
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States
| | - Michael J Stablein
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States
| | - Niki E Wu
- Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States
| | - Chih-Ting Kuo
- Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States
| | - Buchun Si
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States
| | - Xu Kang
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States
| | - Yuanhui Zhang
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States.
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Evaluating the Impacts of ACP Management on the Energy Performance of Hydrothermal Liquefaction via Nutrient Recovery. ENERGIES 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/en12040729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is of interest in producing liquid fuels from organic waste, but the process also creates appreciable quantities of aqueous co-product (ACP) containing high concentrations of regulated wastewater pollutants (e.g., organic carbon, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P)). Previous literature has not emphasized characterization, management, or possible valorization of ACP wastewaters. This study aims to evaluate one possible approach to ACP management via recovery of valuable scarce materials. Equilibrium modeling was performed to estimate theoretical yields of struvite (MgNH4PO4·6H2O) from ACP samples arising from HTL processing of selected waste feedstocks. Experimental analyses were conducted to evaluate the accuracy of theoretical yield estimates. Adjusted yields were then incorporated into a life-cycle energy modeling framework to compute energy return on investment (EROI) for the struvite precipitation process as part of the overall HTL life-cycle. Observed struvite yields and residual P concentrations were consistent with theoretical modeling results; however, residual N concentrations were lower than model estimates because of the volatilization of ammonia gas. EROI calculations reveal that struvite recovery is a net-energy producing process, but that this benefit offers little to no improvement in EROI performance for the overall HTL life-cycle. In contrast, corresponding economic analysis suggests that struvite precipitation may be economically appealing.
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