TY - JOUR
T1 - Strategies for the Revalorization of Sewage Sludge in a Waste Water Treatment Plant Through the Integration of Hydrothermal Processing
AU - Aragon-Briceño, C.I.
AU - Ross, A.B.
AU - Camargo-Valero, M.A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología of Mexico (CONACYT) for the financial support provided to Dr Christian Aragón-Briceño as part of his PhD Scholarship (248333/383197) at the University of Leeds.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - Different strategies for sewage sludge management have been implemented to minimize the environmental impacts and benefit from the resources embedded in this waste stream. In that regard, Hydrothermal treatments (HTTs) of biomass can contribute generating high-value products (hydrochar) and enhancing biogas generation. In this work, different strategies were analysed for implementing HTTs at WWTPs considering the effect of 2 different process temperatures (160 and 250 °C) on different sewage sludge samples (primary, secondary and digestate sludge). Determination of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus fate and mass and energy balances in hydrochar and process waters were carried out. HTT promoted solubilization of nitrogen, phosphorus and organic carbon up to 89%, 13% and 124% respectively. Moreover, biomethane yield increased up to 168% reaching methane concentrations up to 79% in the biogas. High heating values of hydrochars ranged from 12.0 to 18.2 MJ kg−1. The integration of HTT as an intermediate step between two-step anaerobic digestion process showed an increase in the net energy balance of up to 124% in comparison with the conventional anaerobic digestion process. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
AB - Different strategies for sewage sludge management have been implemented to minimize the environmental impacts and benefit from the resources embedded in this waste stream. In that regard, Hydrothermal treatments (HTTs) of biomass can contribute generating high-value products (hydrochar) and enhancing biogas generation. In this work, different strategies were analysed for implementing HTTs at WWTPs considering the effect of 2 different process temperatures (160 and 250 °C) on different sewage sludge samples (primary, secondary and digestate sludge). Determination of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus fate and mass and energy balances in hydrochar and process waters were carried out. HTT promoted solubilization of nitrogen, phosphorus and organic carbon up to 89%, 13% and 124% respectively. Moreover, biomethane yield increased up to 168% reaching methane concentrations up to 79% in the biogas. High heating values of hydrochars ranged from 12.0 to 18.2 MJ kg−1. The integration of HTT as an intermediate step between two-step anaerobic digestion process showed an increase in the net energy balance of up to 124% in comparison with the conventional anaerobic digestion process. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
KW - Biomethane production
KW - Clean energy
KW - Hydrothermal process
KW - Process waters
KW - Sewage sludge
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133301481&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12649-022-01856-0
DO - 10.1007/s12649-022-01856-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85133301481
SN - 1877-2641
VL - 14
SP - 105
EP - 126
JO - Waste and Biomass Valorization
JF - Waste and Biomass Valorization
IS - 1
ER -
