Catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction of municipal sludge assisted by formic acid for the production of next-generation fuels
Abstract Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of municipal sludge (MS) was studied at 325 °C and 30 min at 10 and 30% w/w concentration of MS using formic acid (FA) as a green liquid hydrogen donor both in the absence and in the presence of heterogeneous catalysts. Pellets of commercial NiMo/Al2O3, CoMo/Al2O3 and felt of activated carbon ACF 1600 were used as catalysts. The addition of FA at high MS loading allowed to increase the yields in BC from 41 to 62% and its H/C ratio from 1.80 to 2.01 leading to energy recovery (ER) higher than 100%.When heterogeneous catalysts were used together with FA, a marked improvement of BC yields and quality was obtained at 10% MS loading. This behavior was not…
Wastewater-based epidemiology for early warning of SARS-COV-2 circulation: A pilot study conducted in Sicily, Italy
There is increasing evidence of the use of wastewater-based epidemiology to integrate conventional monitoring assessing disease symptoms and signs of viruses in a specific territory. We present the results of SARS-CoV-2 environmental surveillance activity in wastewater samples collected between September 2020 and July 2021 in 9 wastewater treatment plants (WTPs) located in central and western Sicily, serving over 570,000 residents. The presence of SARS-CoV-2, determined in 206 wastewater samples using RT-qPCR assays, was correlated with the notified and geo-referenced cases on the areas served by the WTPs in the same study period. Overall, 51% of wastewater samples were positive. Samples we…
Molecular Characterization of Coxsackievirus B5 Isolates from Sewage, Italy 2016–2017
Hereby, the partial Viral Protein 1 sequences of Coxsackievirus B5 (CV-B5) from sewage samples, collected in Italy from 2016 to 2017, were compared with those available in GenBank from clinical samples. Phylogenetic analysis highlighted: (I) the predominant circulation of CV-B5 genogroup B in Italy, and (II) the presence of two new sub-genogroups.
Hydrothermal liquefaction of wet waste biomass: a practical assessment to achieve an integral valorization of municipal sludge
Hydrothermal liquefaction of municipal sludge was conducted to perform a practical assessment to achieve an integral valorization of this wet waste biomass. Experiments were done to investigate the effects of sub- and supercritical water and of the fluid dynamic regime on the energy recovery of the process and on the quality of the products. Experimental runs were performed at two different temperatures (350°C and 400°C) changing reaction time in order to work at the same kinetic severity of the process (LogR0=8.9, calculated as in ref. [3]). An improvement of the C % in the solid residues and of the ration of H/C of the biocrude was obtained when stirred reactor was used both in sub- and s…
Sewage sludge as cheap alternative to microalgae as feedstock of catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction processes
Abstract Production of biocrude through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of sewage sludge (SS) and Chlorella vulgaris was investigated. NiMo/Al2O3 (KF 851), CoMo/Al2O3 (KF 1022) and activated carbon felt, tested as catalysts at 598 K for 30 min, did not change the biocrude yield but significantly improved its quality. Quantitative sulfur removal and lower oxygen content were found in biocrude when KF 851 and KF 1022 were used with C. vulgaris. The same catalysts decreased O/C and S/C ratio of the biocrude from SS. The highest HHV (38.19 MJ/kg) and H/C ratio (1.65) and the lowest O/C (0.11) of the biocrude from SS were obtained with the cheaper activated carbon felt. A new product phase, prob…
Hydrothermal liquefaction of waste biomass in stirred reactors: One step forward to the integral valorization of municipal sludge
Abstract Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of municipal sludge (MS) was performed at 350 °C for 30 min (subcritical water) and at 400 °C for 0 min (supercritical water) at fixed kinetic severity (LogR0 = 8.9) in static and stirred batch reactors to study the effect of the flow regime on the energy recovery (ER) of the process and on the quality of the products. With adopted experimental procedures it was possible to reduce to less than 10% the yield of lost organic compounds, termed volatiles (VT), and to collect and quantify a liquid hydrocarbon fraction (HC) separated from the biocrude (BC). The highest value of the HC yield, 25% w/w, was obtained in supercritical conditions. The C content …
Catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction of municipal sludge in subcritical water
In the last decades, the dwindling of the fossil sources of energy coupled with the growth of energy demand and of waste production prompted the research in developing novel industrial technologies for renewable energy production and waste valorization. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a good alternative to transform wet biomasses as microalgae, macroalgae, agricultural residues, food waste, and municipal sludge (MS) into value-added products with high efficiency and decreasing the amounts that has to be disposed of. HTL takes place in an aqueous environment, without the energy cost of drying the biomass, at 300-400°C and pressure of 10-40 MPa [1,2]. At these operative conditions, an inte…