Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Format of Original

7 p.

Publication Date

9-2016

Publisher

Water Environment Federation

Source Publication

Water Environment Research

Source ISSN

1554-7531

Abstract

Pyrolysis is a thermal process that converts biosolids into biochar (a soil amendment), py-oil and py-gas, which can be energy sources. The objectives of this research were to determine the product yield of dried biosolids during pyrolysis and the energy requirements of pyrolysis. Bench-scale experiments revealed that temperature increases up to 500 °C substantially decreased the fraction of biochar and increased the fraction of py-oil. Py-gas yield increased above 500 °C. The energy required for pyrolysis was approximately 5-fold less than the energy required to dry biosolids (depending on biosolids moisture content), indicating that, if a utility already uses energy to dry biosolids, then pyrolysis does not require a substantial amount of energy. However, if a utility produces wet biosolids, then implementing pyrolysis may be costly because of the energy required to dry the biosolids. The energy content of py-gas and py-oil was always greater than the energy required for pyrolysis.

Comments

Published version. Water Environment Research, Vol. 88, No. 9 (September 2016): 804-810. DOI. © 2016 Water Environment Federation. Used with permission.

Download

Share

COinS