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Deployment of temperature-specific thermal hydrolysis pretreatment in anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge and food waste could augment the economic benefits

Chemical Engineering Journal, ISSN: 1385-8947, Vol: 502, Page: 157835
2024
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Article Description

Anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) is an increasingly attractive option for treating the regional organic fraction of municipal solid waste, including sewage sludge (SS) and food waste (FW). Given the differences in organic components and the effects of thermal hydrolysis pretreatment (THP) between SS and FW, this study avoids the limitations of single-temperature THP by proposing an innovative configuration of temperature-specific THP (S4: HTHP-SS + LTHP-FW). This process was compared with three other AcoD scenarios—SS + FW (S1), HTHP-SS + FW (S2), and SS + LTHP-FW (S3)—through exergy analysis and techno-economic evaluation, with the aim of improving the treatment efficiency and economic benefits of the AcoD. The results indicated that HTHP on SS and LTHP on FW respectively increased biogas recovery and waste oil extraction, making both effective strategies to improve chemical oxygen demand (COD) conversion efficiency in AcoD. Because of a high (74.5 %) COD conversion efficiency and the lower polymer consumption for sludge dewatering (a 26.7 % decrease from S1 levels), S4 yielded the maximum internal rate of return (11.18 %), shortest payback period (12.9 years), and highest net profit (19 USD/tonne-TS fed ). Additionally, thermal energy balance and exergy analysis indicated that all four scenarios were thermally self-sufficient, but S4 demonstrated the highest exergy efficiency of 44.2 %. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses with Monte Carlo simulation revealed that S4 enhanced the risk resilience, resulting in an 87.7 % probability of achieving positive economic benefits, whereas S1’s probability was 31.8 %. In conclusion, this study providing essential economic insight into THP deployment for SS and FW AcoD engineering, supporting the establishment and advancement of centralized systems for treating municipal solid waste.

Bibliographic Details

Penghui Chen; Fan Xing; Wei Li; Enzhen Wang; Yonghui Zheng; Xingguo Wu; Binzhe Li; Renjie Dong; Jianbin Guo

Elsevier BV

Chemistry; Environmental Science; Chemical Engineering; Engineering

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