Hydroxyapatite catalyzed hydrothermal liquefaction transforms food waste from an environmental liability to renewable fuel

LeClerc, Heather O.; Tompsett, Geoffrey A.; Paulsen, Alex D.; McKenna, Amy M.; Niles, Sydney F.; Reddy, Christopher M.; Nelson, Robert K.; Cheng, Feng; Teixeira, Andrew R.; Timko, Michaël T.

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104916

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Collectively, biocrude yields reported in Figure 1 are consistent with the commonly held model that HTL involves hydrolysis and depolymerization of macromolecules that form short chain reactive species that then condense to form increasingly larger molecules that partition into the aqueous, organic, and solid phases, respectively. 2 Food and green waste feedstocks produce biocrude molecules with different levels of complexity and heteroatoms that promote specific chemical pathways when feedstocks are mixed in varying ratios prior to HTL. With food wasterich blends, esterification reactions of the fatty acids and other oxygenates result in biocrude containing esters and an overall increase in the oxygen content of the biocrude relative to that obtained from pure food waste.…”

Section: Emergent Chemical Pathway Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By utilizing waste and diverting it from landfills, there is the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 2.4% in the United States. 2 Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a water-assisted thermochemical conversion process that operates at temperatures from 250 to 400 °C and sufficient pressure to maintain a liquid water phase. 3 The use of HTL has been extensively studied for the conversion of single-source waste feeds into an energy dense biocrude that is a biofuel precursor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Combined, food waste and green waste account for an estimated 1.5 billion tons per year, 2,26 with real prices that are often negative. 27,28 Moreover, they are co-produced in similar urban and dense suburban communities, making their mixtures an attractive feed stream for HTL.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emergent chemical behavior in mixed food and lignocellulosic green waste hydrothermal liquefaction

LeClerc

Page²,

Tompsett

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising strategy for conversion of energy-dense waste streams to fuels. Mixed-feed HTL aggregates multiple feed streams to achieve greater scales that capitalize on local resources, hence lowering costs. The potential for new pathways and products upon feedstock blending becomes a compounding level of complexity when unlocking emergent chemistries. Food and green waste streams were evaluated under HTL conditions (300 °C, 1 hr) to understand the effect of feed molecular composition on product distributions and mechanisms. Thousands of emergent chemical compounds were detected via FT-ICR MS, ultimately leading to the emergence of two dominant outcomes. First, the presence of small amounts of food waste into green waste results in substantial decarboxylation and subsequent polymerization to biocrude then chars. Second, in the other limit, small amounts of green waste promote capping of oxygenates into the biodiesel range, such as with the emergence of fatty acid methyl esters.

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Section: Emergent Chemical Pathway Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emergent chemical behavior in mixed food and lignocellulosic green waste hydrothermal liquefaction

LeClerc

Page²,

Tompsett

et al. 2022

Preprint

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show abstract

“…Combined food waste and green waste account for an estimated 1.5 billion tons per year, , with real prices that are often negative. , Moreover, they are co-produced in similar urban and dense suburban communities, making their mixtures an attractive feed stream for HTL. Molecularly, food and green wastes are distinct from one another, and these differences are anticipated to affect their ability to be transformed into biocrude as well as the resultant biocrude composition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergent Chemical Behavior in Mixed Food and Lignocellulosic Green Waste Hydrothermal Liquefaction

LeClerc

Page

Tompsett

et al. 2022

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

Self Cite

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Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising strategy for the conversion of energy-dense waste streams to fuels. Mixed-feed HTL aggregates multiple feed streams to achieve greater scales that capitalize on local resources, hence lowering costs. The potential for new pathways and products upon feedstock blending becomes a compounding level of complexity when unlocking emergent chemistries. Food and green waste streams were evaluated under HTL conditions (300 °C, 1 h) to understand the effect of feed molecular composition on product distributions and mechanisms. Thousands of emergent chemical compounds were detected via Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, ultimately leading to the emergence of two dominant outcomes. First, the presence of small amounts of food waste into green waste results in substantial decarboxylation and subsequent polymerization to biocrude than chars. Second, in the other limit, small amounts of green waste promote the capping of oxygenates into the biodiesel range, such as with the emergence of fatty acid methyl esters.

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“…The production of biocrude via HTL has historically been focused on the conversion of wood. However, over the past 20 years, the focus has shifted toward alternative sustainable lignocellulosic materials, such as synergistic waste streams from agriculture and land management, or so-called energy crops, with a focus on algal and bacterial substrates. ,− HTL of urban or municipal waste streams, including food waste − and wastewater treatment wastes, has gained interest of late, in part due to the low (or negative) feedstock costs and the corresponding low modeled fuel costs. ,,− Current literature in the field of HTL reports biocrude yields from 24 to 64% on dry ash-free (daf) basis, for oils of a higher heating value (HHV) from 28 to 38 MJ·kg –1 . − …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Study on the Continuous Flow Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Various Wet-Waste Feedstock Types

Cronin

Schmidt

Billing

et al. 2021

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) liquifies wet feedstocks to produce a biocrude under moderate temperatures (300−450 °C) and high pressures (>2500 psi). The biocrude can be upgraded to transportation fuels (predominantly diesel) using typical refinery unit operations (e.g., hydrotreater and distillation). HTL of wet-wastes is a promising route to produce environmentally friendly and cost-competitive fuels; however, the feedstock significantly impacts the product quality and the process yield. Consequently, it is important to rigorously compare different feedstocks to determine the critical material attributes, which impact the biocrude yield and quality. A few published comprehensive studies evaluate the performance of numerous different wet-waste HTL feed types, processed using the same reactor configuration and analytical approach. This is particularly true for continuous flow HTL. HTL studies generally investigate one or a few surrogate feedstocks or model compound materials or attempt comparative reviews by collecting the results of numerous different research groups. Such an approach involves numerous assumptions that can significantly compromise the legitimacy of the data compared and the conclusions drawn. This work investigates HTL of 13 different real-world wet-waste feedstocks, belonging to multiple different classes of municipal wet-waste, including food waste, biosolids, sludge, fermentation residues, manure, and blends thereof. The biocrude carbon yields obtained throughout the study ranged from 39.7 to 74.3%. The biocrude yield varied through a range of different process changes, such as increasing reactor flow rate and feed solid loading, and addition of Fe-based additives. By analyzing a broad range of materials, and through the comprehensive characterization profiles prepared for both the feedstock and products, this study has produced a significant volume of data, which was then analyzed using robust statistical methods.

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Hydroxyapatite catalyzed hydrothermal liquefaction transforms food waste from an environmental liability to renewable fuel

Cited by 15 publications

References 74 publications

Emergent chemical behavior in mixed food and lignocellulosic green waste hydrothermal liquefaction

Emergent chemical behavior in mixed food and lignocellulosic green waste hydrothermal liquefaction

Emergent Chemical Behavior in Mixed Food and Lignocellulosic Green Waste Hydrothermal Liquefaction

Comparative Study on the Continuous Flow Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Various Wet-Waste Feedstock Types

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