Xingying Tang

Treatment of municipal sewage sludge in supercritical water: A review.

With increasing construction of wastewater treatment plants and stricter policies, municipal sewage sludge (MSS) disposal has become a serious problem. Treatment of MSS in supercritical water (SCW) can avoid the pre-drying procedure and secondary pollution of conventional methods. SCW treatment methods can be divided into supercritical water gasification (SCWG), supercritical water partial oxidation (SCWPO) and supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) technologies with increasing amounts of oxidants. Hydrogen-rich gases can be generated from MSS by SCWG or SCWPO technology using oxidants less than stoichiometric ratio while organic compounds can be completely degraded by SCWO technology with using an oxidant excess. For SCWG and SCWPO technologies, this paper reviews the influences of different process variables (MSS properties, moisture content, temperature, oxidant amount and catalysts) on the production of gases. For SCWO technology, this paper reviews research regarding the removal of organics with or without hydrothermal flames and the changes in heavy metal speciation and risk. Finally, typical systems for handling MSS are summarized and research needs and challenges are proposed.

Partial oxidation of municipal sludge with activited carbon catalyst in supercritical water

The partial oxidation (POX) characteristics of municipal sludge in supercritical water (SCW) were investigated by using batch reactor. Effects of reaction parameters such as oxidant equivalent ratio (OER), reaction time and temperature were investigated. Activated carbon (AC) could effectively improve the mole fraction of H(2) in gas product at low OER. However, high OER (greater than 0.3) not only led to the combustion reaction of CO and H(2), but also caused corrosion of reactor inner wall. Hydrogenation and polymerization of the intermediate products are possible reasons for the relative low COD removal rate in our tests. Metal oxide leached from the reactor inner wall and the main components of the granular sludge were deposited in the AC catalyst. Reaction time had more significant effect on BET surface area of AC than OER had. Long reaction time led to the methanation reaction following hydrolysis and oxidation reaction of AC in SCW in the presence of oxygen. Correspondingly, the possible reaction mechanisms were proposed.

Treatment of sewage sludge in supercritical water and evaluation of the combined process of supercritical water gasification and oxidation

Influences of temperature and oxidation coefficient (n) on sewage sludge treatment in supercritical water and its corresponding reaction mechanism were studied. Moreover, the combined process of supercritical water gasification (SCWG) and supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) was also investigated. The results show that ammonia nitrogen, phenols and pyridines are main refractory intermediates. The weight of solid products at 873K and n=4 is only 3.5wt.% of the initial weight, which is lower than that after combustion. Volatile organics in solid phase have almost released at 723K and n=0. Highest yield of combustible gases was obtained at n=0, and H2 yield can reach 11.81mol/kg at 873K. Furthermore, the combination of SCWG at 723K and SCWO at 873K with a total n=1 is feasible for its good effluent quality and low operation costs.

Supercritical water oxidation of acrylic acid production wastewater

Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) of wastewater from an acrylic acid manufacturing plant has been studied on a continuous flow experimental system, whose reactor was made of Hastelloy C-276. Experimental conditions included a reaction temperature (T) ranging from 673 to 773 K, a residence time (t) ranging from 72.7 to 339 s, a constant pressure (P) of 25 MPa and a fixed oxidation coefficient (α) of 2.0. Experimental results indicated that reaction temperature and residence time had significant influences on the oxidation reaction, and increasing the two operation parameters could improve both degradation of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3‒N). The COD removal efficiency could reach up to 98.73% at 25 MPa, 773 K and 180.1 s, whereas the destruction efficiency of NH3‒N was only 43.71%. We further carried out a kinetic analysis considering the induction period through free radical chain mechanism. It confirms that the power-law rate equation for COD removal was 345 exp(−52200/RT)[COD]1.98[O2]0.17 and for NH3‒N removal was 500 exp(−64492.19/RT)[NH3‒N]1.87[O2]0.03. Moreover, the induction time formulations for COD and NH3‒N were suspected to be exp(38250/RT)/173 and exp(55690/RT)/15231, respectively. Correspondingly, induction time changed from 2.22 to 5.38 s for COD and 0.38 to 1.38 s for NH3‒N. Owing to the catalysis of reactor inner wall surface, more than 97% COD removal was achieved in all samples.

Partial oxidation of landfill leachate in supercritical water: Optimization by response surface methodology

To achieve the maximum H2 yield (GYH2), TOC removal rate (TRE) and carbon recovery rate (CR), response surface methodology was applied to optimize the process parameters for supercritical water partial oxidation (SWPO) of landfill leachate in a batch reactor. Quadratic polynomial models for GYH2, CR and TRE were established with Box-Behnken design. GYH2, CR and TRE reached up to 14.32mmol·gTOC(-1), 82.54% and 94.56% under optimum conditions, respectively. TRE was invariably above 91.87%. In contrast, TC removal rate (TR) only changed from 8.76% to 32.98%. Furthermore, carbonate and bicarbonate were the most abundant carbonaceous substances in product, whereas CO2 and H2 were the most abundant gaseous products. As a product of nitrogen-containing organics, NH3 has an important effect on gas composition. The carbon balance cannot be reached duo to the formation of tar and char. CR increased with the increase of temperature and oxidation coefficient.

Supercritical water oxidation of polyvinyl alcohol and desizing wastewater: Influence of NaOH on the organic decomposition

Polyvinyl alcohol is a refractory compound widely used in industry. Here we report supercritical water oxidation of polyvinyl alcohol solution and desizing wastewater with and without sodium hydroxide addition. However, it is difficult to implement complete degradation of organics even though polyvinyl alcohol can readily crack under supercritical water treatment. Sodium hydroxide had a significant catalytic effect during the supercritical water oxidation of polyvinyl alcohol. It appears that the OH- ion participated in the C-C bond cleavage of polyvinyl alcohol molecules, the CO2-capture reaction and the neutralization of intermediate organic acids, promoting the overall reactions moving in the forward direction. Acetaldehyde was a typical intermediate product during reaction. For supercritical water oxidation of desizing wastewater, a high destruction rate (98.25%) based on total organic carbon was achieved. In addition, cases where initial wastewater was alkaline were favorable for supercritical water oxidation treatment, but salt precipitation and blockage issues arising during the process need to be taken into account seriously.

Corrosion Properties of Candidate Materials in Supercritical Water Oxidation Process

Abstract Corrosion of constructional materials in supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) is one of the main obstacles to commercializing the SCWO process. Statistical analysis of corrosion research results indicate nickel-based alloys are the most widely applied materials in SCWO system among the candidate metals. The present paper reviews the corrosion characteristics of iron-base alloy, nickel-based alloy, titanium-base alloy, ceramics, niobium, tantalum, thallium and gold under the condition of SCWO. The selection scheme of materials is presented in SCWO system flow diagram in detail. The effects of alloying elements on the corrosion behavior of materials in the water environment with high temperature and high pressure water are summarized in this paper. Moreover, some further researches for material corrosion in SCWO process are also proposed. All work was contributed to selecting the appropriate constructional materials and reducing the corrosion damage in SCWO system.