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Thermal Valorization of Pulp Mill Sludge by Co-processing with Coal

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Abstract

At the pulp and paper industries, large volumes of primary and secondary sludge are generated from wastewater treatment. Aiming to assess the co-processing of each type of sludge with coal, thermogravimetric (TG) analysis has been used in this work. First, combustion and pyrolysis TG curves of coal (C), primary (L1) and secondary (L2) pulp mill sludge were obtained under oxidizing and inert atmosphere, respectively. Then, under identical experimental conditions, TG analysis was carried out on the primary sludge–coal (CL1) and the secondary sludge–coal (CL2) blends. The corresponding differential thermogravimetric (DTG) curves showed evident differences between C, L1 and L2, which were mainly related to the relative large fixed carbon and low volatiles content of C. However these differences, the combustion of CL1 and CL2 mostly resembled that of C. Meanwhile, the pyrolysis of CL1 and CL2 showed lower devolatilization temperatures and char yields than that of C. Non-isothermal kinetic analysis of TG data showed slightly lower apparent activation energy (E) for the combustion of C than for the combustion of either CL1 or CL2. Contrarily, much lower E values were determined for the pyrolysis of CL1 and CL2 than for the pyrolysis of C. Yet, lower E values than the weighted calculated ones were determined for the combustion and, especially, for the pyrolysis of the blends.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank assistance given by María P. González Alonso and José A. de Linaje Aguirre, from LARECOM (Spain). Authors also thank the kind collaboration of Luís Machado and José Luís Amaral from RAIZ—Instituto de Investigação da Floresta e do Papel. FCT funding to the Associated Laboratory CESAM is acknowledged. C. Escapa acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports for her PhD fellowship (FPU12/03073). S. Paniagua acknowledges the grant for doctorate studies given by University of León in the framework of its own research program ULE-2014. Also, M. Otero acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, State Secretariat for Research, Development and Innovation Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC-2010-05634) and from MaSTherPro CESAM’s project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Chemistry and Physics, IMARENABIO (Institute of Environment, Natural Resources and Biodiversity), University of León, Campus de Vegazana, 24071, León, Spain

    R. N. Coimbra, S. Paniagua, C. Escapa, L. F. Calvo & M. Otero

  2. Department of Chemistry and CESAM (Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies), University of Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    M. Otero

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  1. R. N. Coimbra
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  2. S. Paniagua
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  3. C. Escapa
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  4. L. F. Calvo
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  5. M. Otero
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Correspondence to M. Otero.

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Coimbra, R.N., Paniagua, S., Escapa, C. et al. Thermal Valorization of Pulp Mill Sludge by Co-processing with Coal. Waste Biomass Valor 7, 995–1006 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-016-9524-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-016-9524-2

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