Digested sewage sludge gasification in supercritical water

Abstract

Digested sewage sludge gasification in supercritical water was studied. Influences of main reaction parameters, including temperature (623-698 K), pressure (25-35 Mpa), residence time (10-15 min) and dry matter content (5-25 wt%), were investigated to optimize the gasification process. The main gas products were methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and traces of ethene, etc. Results showed that 10 wt% dry matter content digested sewage sludge at a temperature of 698 K and residence time of 50 min, with a pressure of 25 MPa, were the most favorable conditions for the sewage sludge gasification and carbon gasification efficiencies. In addition, potassium carbonate (K2CO3) was also employed as the catalyst to make a comparison between gasification with and without catalyst. When 2.6 g K2CO3 was added, a gasification efficiency of 25.26% and a carbon gasification efficiency of 20.02% were achieved, which were almost four times as much as the efficiencies without catalyst. K2CO3 has been proved to be effective in sewage sludge gasification.