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Microwave Hydrothermal Carbonization of Human Biowastes

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Abstract

The challenges of poor sanitation due to poor faecal sludge management, particularly in the developing and other remote regions of developed countries, are well documented. As a potential technological and complementary approach to managing human biowastes, microwave hydrothermal carbonization (M-HTC), a thermochemical process, was used in this study to convert human biowastes into a safe material without any foul odour. The process also recovered value-added products i.e. solid chars and liquid ammonia concentrate. Primary sewage and raw human faecal sludges were subjected to microwave heating at 160, 180 and 200 °C, at different residence times: 30, 60 and 120 min under autogenous pressure. As a result, up to 60 % energy densified chars were recovered from the raw biowastes. The calorific (higher heating) values of chars recovered after the process, particularly those from human faecal sludge, increased from 19.79 up to 25.01 MJ/kg. Also, up to 80 % ammonia was recovered in the liquid fraction of carbonized human biowastes. Solid char yield and other estimated physicochemical properties were observed to be dependent on both the reaction temperatures and residence times of the process. The results of this study show M-HTC is a potential value-added recovery process for managing human biowastes and further provides essential information useful for the design and optimization of a self-sustainable sanitation facility.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its funding to Loughborough University for this project. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors. Assistance from Dr Julia Zakharova, Mr Philip Boshoff and Mr Geoff Russell was greatly appreciated during the sampling campaign of the raw human biowastes. Thanks also go to Dr Sue Cavill for her help during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK

    Oluwasola O. D. Afolabi & C. P. L. Thomas

  2. Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), School of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK

    Oluwasola O. D. Afolabi & M. Sohail

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  1. Oluwasola O. D. Afolabi
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  2. M. Sohail
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  3. C. P. L. Thomas
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Correspondence to Oluwasola O. D. Afolabi.

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Afolabi, O.O.D., Sohail, M. & Thomas, C.P.L. Microwave Hydrothermal Carbonization of Human Biowastes. Waste Biomass Valor 6, 147–157 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-014-9333-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-014-9333-4

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