Comparative analysis for pyrolysis of sewage sludge in tube reactor heated by electromagnetic induction and electrical resistance furnace
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Sewage sludge (SS) is usually generated by municipal wastewater treatment plants. Substantial untreated SS is causing severe environmental impacts as well as health issues to humans because of its complicated mixture of microorganisms, undigested organic matters, and heavy metals (Deng et al., 2009, Ma et al., 2016, Morgano et al., 2016). Landfill, composting and incineration are the most common methods for SS treatment and disposal. Landfills are gradually constricted given the limitation of land sites. Conversely, incineration seems less acceptable because of the legislative regulations for environmental protection (Huang et al., 2014, Lin and Ma, 2012). For SS composting, emissions of odor gas and bioaerosol along with leachability of heavy metals are serious concerns (Fang and Wong, 1999).
Pyrolysis, a technology for thermochemical conversion, has been widely used in industry. Given its fast reaction, small footprint, reduction of emissions, immobilization of heavy metals, and convenience of control and scale-up, pyrolysis is recently gaining greater popularity for SS treatment compared with other treatment technologies (Cao et al., 2010, Domínguez et al., 2006, Han et al., 2015, Jin et al., 2017). Moreover, pyrolysis is believed to convert the organic waste of SS into valuable gaseous, liquid, and solid by-products, a feature which makes their storage, transportation, and usage easier (Cao and Pawłowski, 2012, Chen et al., 2014, Kim and Parker, 2008, Zhang et al., 2017a). Previous research identified ablative, fluid bed, circulating fluid bed, and vacuum pyrolysis as the main types of pyrolysis technologies (Bridgwater et al., 1999). These technologies typically employ an electric furnace and regenerative gas heater as heating sources (Agrafioti et al., 2013, Jin et al., 2017, Ruiz-Gómez et al., 2017). However, those methods of external heat transfer could lower pyrolysis efficiency and generate high energy loss. Over the last decade, microwave-assisted pyrolysis has become predominant and a potential technology for SS pyrolysis (Huang et al., 2015, Ma et al., 2017, Zhang et al., 2017b). In comparison with the familiar heating ways, non-contact and well-established microwave heating method facilitates the reduction of energy consumption and pyrolysis reaction time (Foong et al., 2020, Huang et al., 2015, Lam et al., 2019). However, safety measurements might require greater attention when using microwaves with 2.45 GHz or higher frequencies during pyrolysis to protect human health and the environment from radiation. To date, heating temperature and rate play key roles in SS pyrolysis, as demonstrated by many studies (Shen and Zhang, 2003, Shie et al., 2015, Wang et al., 2007). During pyrolysis, additional free radicals are generated because of the high heating rates, an outcome which is consequently beneficial for the yield of gaseous and liquid products. By contrast, a slow heating rate might lead to the generation of solid products due to the long vapor residence time (Iyoti, 2006). Although pyrolysis technologies and the parameters of the reaction processes have been intensively studied, no research has been reported on pyrolysis products through electromagnetic induction (EMI) pyrolysis of SS.
EMI has been extensively used as heating method in many fields, such as the thermal treatment of metals, plastics and textile (Bayerl et al., 2014, Bera and Babadagli, 2015, Norambuena-Contreras and Garcia, 2016, Sadeghi et al., 2017). Given its non-contact, energy saving, and pollution free nature and its effective thermal conversion, EMI heating is very effective and environment-friendly through its fast distribution of thermal energy into induction objects. Electrical conductivity dependent on the heating method such as EMI used in industry usually shows low frequency (20–40 kHz) corresponding to a lower radiation risk. Specifically, by cutting the magnetic lines of force in an alternating magnetic field, alternating current produces and heats the non-insulated conductance magnet induction media, thereby simultaneously heating the target by the effect of thermal conduction. Regarding the thermal treatment of SS, Xue et al. have considered and investigated using EMI for drying SS. They concluded that the drying characteristics of SS was significantly influenced by the working voltage of the EMI device. During EMI drying, a quick weight reduction related to the release of volatile organic matters as well as an obvious carbonation phenomena of SS can be observed when the working voltage exceeds 350 V (Xue et al., 2018b). A further investigation on SS pyrolysis by EMI is promising. Bio-char can be prepared through EMI pyrolysis and shows similar general properties bio-char as well as its better adsorption capacity on heavy metals compared with bio-char derived from conventional pyrolysis (Xue et al., 2019). Experimental results indicate that EMI pyrolysis temperature was determined by the relationship between the working voltage of the EMI device and the induction media. Bio-char yield rate ranged from 89.7 wt% to 51.2 wt% at temperatures from 300 ℃. to 600 ℃. Elements, surface characterizations and micromorphology, thermogravimetric properties, and gas evolution changed with the increasing pyrolysis temperature. Hydroxyl groups were decomposed during EMI pyrolysis (Xue et al., 2019). EMI has also been conducted on food processing SS and exhibited a potential for recycling biomass energy (Wentien et al., 2009). The risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in bio-oil pyrolyzed by induction-heating has been evaluated (Tsai et al., 2009). These findings indicate that EMI pyrolysis can be used for the production of liquid and gaseous products. Although several properties of bio-char from EMI pyrolysis have been improved, the distribution and composition of liquid and gaseous products which is great of importance for energy conversion during SS pyrolysis remains unclear. The energy consumption of EMI pyrolysis must also be evaluated in relation to that of conventional pyrolysis, such as an electrical resistance furnace (ERF) with a tube reactor.
To understand SS pyrolysis by EMI, this work presents an improved pyrolysis reactor and method designed on the basis of our previous research. The temperature and initial moisture content of SS affecting the yield of pyrolysis products were discussed. A comparative analysis for the product distributions and characterization in solid, liquid, and gas fractions between the EMI and ERF pyrolysis of SS were investigated. The mass and energy balance was evaluated. This work helps to understand the difference of pyrolytic product distribution and energy consumption between EMI and ERF pyrolysis by providing a comparative analysis.
Section snippets
Materials
SS used in this work involved mixed sludge obtained from the Luobuzui wastewater treatment plant in Wuhan, China. Raw SS was stored at 4 ℃ in a refrigerator. The main properties of SS are listed in Tables S1 and 1. The original moisture content of this kind of raw SS is 95 wt%. Raw SS samples were placed in an oven at 105 ℃ for 2 h to obtain the dried SS. To evaluate the effect of different moisture content on pyrolysis, moisture contents corresponding to 30, 50, and 70 wt% of SS were obtained
Effect of temperature
The effect of pyrolysis temperature on the yield of products is given in Fig. 2 (a). By increasing the pyrolysis temperature, the bio-char yield was dominated and significantly decreased from 65.3 wt% to 44.0 wt%. The higher yield of bio-char depended on SS composition corresponding to the higher ash content. The yield of bio-oil which consisted of water and pyrolyzed oil increased from 20.3 wt% at 300 ℃ to 23.5 wt% at 400℃, and then decreased to 15.8 wt% at 600 ℃ with increasing temperature.
Conclusions
A comparative study was conducted on pyrolysis of SS in tube reactors heated by EMI and a conventional ERF. The effect of the main pyrolysis parameters on the distribution of pyrolytic products was similar and consistent with those of previous research.
The bio-char from EMI pyrolysis exhibited lower H/C ratio corresponding to carbonization and aromaticity and indicated a better application of soil remediation. No significant difference in morphology and no new functional group was found through
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
Financial and technical supports from National Science Foundation of China (51878526) are gratefully acknowledged.
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