Hydrothermal carbonisation – GETTING TO NET ZERO CARBON
high moisture content biowaste as a route to net zero
Biomass waste can be used to decarbonise the world and reduce mankind’s reliance on fossil resources. It can be used for energy, fuel, chemicals & the production of carbon materials.
The majority of biomass wastes are hydrophilic with a moisture content between 60 and 90 wt%. Their high viscosity makes them difficult to dewater prior to further processing.
Production of huge amounts of wet biomass, including municipal solid wastes (MSW), aquaculture and algal residues, sewage sludge, paunch waste is the inevitable consequence of rapid urbanisation and population growth.
There is a need for a cost-effective route to convert undervalued resource into a sustainable and renewable energy resource, while emitting very low levels of greenhouse gases.
how biowastes are currently disposed off
Incineration, Pyrolysis and Gasification
All require high moisture content biowastes to have the moisture content reduced to less than 10%. This energy-intensive pre-drying step for handling the wet wastes is the major challenge of these methods.
Anaerobic Digestion & Landfilling
AD will recover up to 50% of the carbon in the waste but has an extremely long process time, resulting in high CAPEX & OPEX.
Also, the same volume of digestate is left and has to be disposed of, typically to land spreading, landfill or incineration.
Land spreading is being increasingly restricted because of concerns about PFAS and other persistent chemicals.
the hydrothermal carbonisation process
Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a thermochemical conversion process that uses heat to convert wet biomass feedstocks to hydrochar.
HTC is performed in a reactor at temperatures ranging from 180 to 250°C, under autogenous pressure of 20 BAR, with feedstock residence time ranging from 1 to 2 hours.
biochar
filtrate
the benefits of hydrothermal carbonisation
Hydrothermal Carbonisation of wet biowaste does not require energy-intensive pre-drying stage and produces a high carbon content hydrochar which can be used as a biofuel, or pyrolyzed to biochar.
The Biochar can be used for carbon sequestration, gasification to syngas. Syngas can be burned in a CHP, converted to Methanol or used for the production of Green Hydrogen.
HTC also produces a high COD filtrate, ideal for methane production in an AD plant.
The energy consumption of HTC is only about 50% that of Pyrolysis.
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