1. Understanding the Upgrading of Sewage Sludge-Derived Hydrothermal Liquefaction Biocrude via Advanced Characterization
- Author
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Heracleous, Eleni, Vassou, Michalis, Lappas, Angelos A., Rodriguez, Julie Katerine, Chiaberge, Stefano, and Bianchi, Daniele
- Subjects
Fuel Technology ,General Chemical Engineering ,Energy Engineering and Power Technology - Abstract
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) can thermochemically transform sewage sludge into a biocrude with high energy content, high chemical complexity, and high O and N content. The development of an efficient upgrading process for such complex feedstocks necessitates detailed knowledge of the molecular composition and the specific heteroatom-containing compounds to understand and optimize the hydrotreating reactions. In this study, we present the upgrading of sewage sludge-derived HTL biocrude via a two-stage hydrotreatment process and perform advanced chemical characterization of the feedstock, intermediate, and final upgraded products with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS). We show that hydrotreatment significantly improves the quality of the oil, primarily succeeding in cracking the heavy molecules and removing the sulfur- and oxygen-containing components. FTICR-MS analysis shows that the HTL biocrude has a high concentration of fatty acid amides that readily lose their oxygen and nitrogen during hydrotreating and are converted into saturated hydrocarbons, whereas the aromatic O
- Published
- 2022