title: Hydrothermal liquefaction of sewage sludge under isothermal and fast conditions.
abstract: We investigated the effects of water loading, sludge moisture content, recovery solvent, and additives on the product yields and compositions from isothermal (673K, 60min) and fast (773K, 1min) hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of sewage sludge. The water loading (which affects pressure within the reactor) plays a small role in product yields. The sludge moisture content had a larger effect with the highest biocrude yields (26.8wt% from isothermal HTL and 27.5wt% from fast HTL) being produced from sludge that was 85wt% moisture. The HTL biocrude from sludge mainly contains long-chain aliphatic hydrocarbon moieties and aliphatic acids. Dichloromethane recovered more biocrude and energy content (∼50%) than did the other solvents tested. Added K2CO3, Na2CO3, HCOOH, CH3COOH, MoO3-CoO/γ-Al2O3and Ru/C significantly decrease the biocrude yield when their loadings are 50wt% of the dried sludge. The additives, excepting carbonates, enhance gasification of sludge.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Department, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA; Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of MOE, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of MOE, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China.
authors.forename: Shuzhong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Department, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. Electronic address: psavage@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Phillip E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Savage
mesh_terms: D061249:Batch Cell Culture Techniques; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D006813:Humidity; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry; D012997:Solvents; D013696:Temperature; D014835:Volatilization; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage; D012997:Solvents; D014867:Water
keywords: Additive; Biocrude; Hydrothermal liquefaction; Recovery solvent; Sludge