Thermo-chemical process with sewage sludge by using CO2

Abstract

This work proposed a novel methodology for energy recovery from sewage sludge via the thermo-chemical process. The impact of CO2 co-feed on the thermo-chemical process (pyrolysis and gasification) of sewage sludge was mainly investigated to enhance thermal efficiency and to modify the end products from the pyrolysis and gasification process. The CO2 injected into the pyrolysis and gasification process enhance the generation of CO. As compared to the thermo-chemical process in an inert atmosphere (i.e., N2), the generation of CO in the presence of CO2 was enhanced approximately 200% at the temperature regime from 600 to 900 °C. The introduction of CO2 into the pyrolysis and gasification process enabled the condensable hydrocarbons (tar) to be reduced considerably by expediting thermal cracking (i.e., approximately 30–40%); thus, exploiting CO2 as chemical feedstock and/or reaction medium for the pyrolysis and gasification process leads to higher thermal efficiency, which leads to environmental benefits. This work also showed that sewage sludge could be a very strong candidate for energy recovery and a raw material for chemical feedstock.