The University of Western Ontario

Laleh Nazari

Chunbao Xu

Madhumita B Ray

This disclosure provides a process based on hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) treatment for co-processing of high-water-content wastewater sludge and other lignocellulosic biomass for co-production of biogas and bio-crude oil. The mixture of waste activated sludge and lignocellulosic biomass such as birchwood sawdust/cornstalk/MSW was converted under HTL conditions in presence of KOH as the homogeneous catalyst. The operating conditions including reaction temperature, reaction time and solids concentration were optimized based on the response surface methodology for the maximum bio-crude oil production. The highest bio-crude oil yield of around 34 wt % was obtained by co-feeding waste activated sludge with lignocellulosic biomass at an optimum temperature of 310&#xb0; C., reaction time of 10 min, and solids concentration of 10 wt %. The two by-products from this process (bio-char and water-soluble products) can be used to produce energy as well. Water-soluble products were used to produce biogas through Bio-methane Potential Test (BMP) and were found to produce around 800 mL bio-methane cumulatively in 30 days per 0.816 g of total organic carbon (TOC) or 2.09 g of chemical oxygen demand (COD) of water-soluble products.

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London, Canada

Laleh Nazari