Co-hydrothermal carbonization of food waste-woody sawdust blend: Interaction effects on the hydrochar properties and nutrients characteristics

Tengfei Wang; Buchun Si; Zhengjun Gong; Yunbo Zhai; Mingfeng Cao; Chuan Peng

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123900

Co-hydrothermal carbonization of food waste-woody sawdust blend: Interaction effects on the hydrochar properties and nutrients characteristics

Bioresour Technol. 2020 Nov:316:123900. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123900. Epub 2020 Jul 25.

Authors

Tengfei Wang¹, Buchun Si², Zhengjun Gong³, Yunbo Zhai⁴, Mingfeng Cao⁵, Chuan Peng⁶

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China; College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China. Electronic address: wtfgxp@163.com.
² Laboratory of Environment-Enhancing Energy (E2E), Key Laboratory of Agricultural Engineering in Structure and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
³ Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China; State-province Joint Engineering Laboratory of Spatial Information Technology of High-Speed Rail Safety, Chengdu 611756, China.
⁴ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States. Electronic address: mfcao@illinois.edu.
⁶ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.

PMID: 32739578
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123900

Abstract

The influence of co-hydrothermal carbonization (co-HTC) on the hydrochar properties and nutrients distribution derived from food waste (FW) and woody sawdust (WS) blend was assessed. The carbon retention, surface functional groups and morphology features involved in hydrochar were evaluated to study the interaction effects. Results suggested that hydrochar yield consistently decreased with increase of both FW ratio and HTC temperature. C retention from 260 °C hydrochar was low (approximately 65%), but more microsphere structures was formed due to the enhanced carbonization degree of hydrochar. Hydrochar obtained at high FW blend ratio and temperature resulted in weaken oxygen-containing groups like OH and CO with enhanced CC and C(O, N). 10.43-60.45% of N and 82-94% of P were retained in hydrochar. NH₄⁺-N (6.63%-15.63%) and organic nitrogen (70.4%-87.7%) were identified as main N-containing species in liquid phase, while total P content (14-166 mg/L) depended more on FW ratio.

Keywords: Co-hydrothermal carbonization; Food waste; Hydrochar; Nutrients; Woody biomass.

MeSH terms

Carbon
Food*
Nutrients
Refuse Disposal*
Temperature
Wood

Substances

Carbon