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Assessing the bioenergy potential of high-ash anaerobic sewage sludge using pyrolysis kinetics and thermodynamics to design a sustainable integrated biorefinery

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Abstract

A new opportunity for producing valuable biorefinery products can be found by integrating biochemical and thermochemical processing with municipal wastewater treatment. This study is the first to evaluate the kinetic triplet and thermodynamic parameters from the pyrolysis of typical Brazilian anaerobic sewage sludge performed in the framework of a multi-step solid-state process. The physicochemical characteristics of the anaerobic sewage sludge are comparable to those obtained from low-rank coals. The pyrolysis characteristics were analyzed by non-isothermal thermogravimetry under different heating rates (10, 25, 50, and 90 K min−1) in an inert atmosphere. Two devolatilization stages were distinguished from the active pyrolysis zone, with an average mass loss of 47.56 wt% (sum) in the range of 398–953 K. For each devolatilization stage, three isoconversional methods (Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose, and Starink) were utilized to calculate the activation energy, and then the compensation effect method was applied to find the pre-exponential factor. The average activation energies calculated ranged from 113.7 to 117.3 kJ mol−1 for the first stage and from 115.7 to 121.9 kJ mol−1 for the second stage, with respective pre-exponential factors of 7.39 × 109 min−1 and 8.80 × 107 min−1. According to the master-plots method, it was found that the first stage followed the fourth-order (F4) model, while the second stage was described by the second-order (F2) model. Based on the statistical evaluation, the devolatilization behaviors reconstructed from overall kinetic expression agree reasonably well with the experimental data, proving its practical importance for designing a pyrolytic processing system using anaerobic sewage sludge as raw material. This study contributes by providing useful insights that can be applied to a large-scale biorefinery as a critical step towards producing biofuels coupled to municipal wastewater treatment in an environmentally sustainable manner.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Brazil’s National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq/Brazil Process 458412/2014-7 and 303742/2017-8) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES/Brazil Finance Code 001).

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Author notes

  1. José Luiz Francisco Alves and Constantino Gomes da Silva contributed equally to this work and shared senior authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Program in Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering and Food Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, 88040-900, Brazil

    José Luiz Francisco Alves, Jean Constantino Gomes da Silva, Mariana Pires Languer, Valdemar Francisco da Silva Filho, Regina de Fátima Peralta Muniz Moreira & Humberto Jorge José

  2. Institute of Geosciences and Engineering, Federal University of Southern and Southeastern of Pará, Maraba, Pará, 68507-590, Brazil

    Luciane Batistella

  3. Department of Engineering, Federal University of Technology – Paraná (UTFPR) Francisco Beltrão, Paraná, 85601-970, Brazil

    Michele Di Domenico

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  1. José Luiz Francisco Alves
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  2. Jean Constantino Gomes da Silva
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  3. Mariana Pires Languer
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  4. Luciane Batistella
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  7. Regina de Fátima Peralta Muniz Moreira
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  8. Humberto Jorge José
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Correspondence to José Luiz Francisco Alves.

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Highlights

A new option for useful biorefinery products from municipal wastewater treatment

High-ash anaerobic sewage sludge is an underutilized feedstock for pyrolysis

Bioenergy potential of high-ash anaerobic sewage sludge via pyrolysis was evaluated

New data for optimizing a pyrolysis process in an integrated biorefinery approach

The pyrolysis can be combined with anaerobic digestion for sustainable biorefining

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Alves, J.L.F., da Silva, J.C.G., Languer, M.P. et al. Assessing the bioenergy potential of high-ash anaerobic sewage sludge using pyrolysis kinetics and thermodynamics to design a sustainable integrated biorefinery. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 12, 693–704 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-020-01023-2

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