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UNDERSTANDING HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION of MIXED FEEDSTOCKS for WASTE CONVERSION Xiaowei Lu University of South Carolina - Columbia

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University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2014 UNDERSTANDING HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION OF MIXED FEEDSTOCKS FOR WASTE CONVERSION Xiaowei Lu University of South Carolina - Columbia Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Lu, X.(2014). UNDERSTANDING HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION OF MIXED FEEDSTOCKS FOR WASTE CONVERSION. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/2667 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNDERSTANDING HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION OF MIXED FEEDSTOCKS FOR WASTE CONVERSION by Xiaowei Lu Bachelor of Engineering Harbin Institute of Technology, 2007 Master of Engineering Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2010 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Civil and Environmental Engineering College of Engineering and Computing University of South Carolina 2014 Accepted by: Nicole D. Berge, Major Professor Jorseph R. V. Flora, Committee Member Yeomin Yoon, Committee Member Perry J Pellechia, Committee Member Lacy Ford, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Xiaowei Lu, 2014 All Rights Reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to gratefully thank my advisor, Dr. Nicole D. Berge for her guidance, patience, and most importantly, the confidence in me during my three-year PhD studies at USC. Her mentorship was paramount in providing a comprehensive experience consistent my long-term career goals. She provides me a model of an instructor and independent thinker with her integrity, mindedness, and most importantly, delicateness and enthusiasm in her career. She trained me to not only be as a seriously experimentalist but also as an independent thinker and researcher. Always make plans for the future, set a goal in life, and push yourself to do hard work, through which you can discover your potential. Without her guidance and help, I will never achieve what I have today. For everything you have done for me, Dr. Berge, thank you so much! I would like to thank Dr Jorseph R. V. Flora, Dr Yeomin Yoon and Dr Navid B.Saleh. I am very grateful for the guidance and help from Dr Flora in my classes and research, as well as his humor and optimism. I would also like to thank Dr Yoon for his help in my qualify exam, proposal and dissertation defense. Learning from Dr Saleh in class is one of the best experiences I had in USC. I wish you all the best in Texas! I also owe a big “thank you” to Dr Perry Pellechia, who taught me all the stuff about NMR. I am so grateful about your patience! I wish I will become a researcher like you who is willing to share what you have with others. iii I would like to thank the department of Civil and Environmental Engnineering, especially, Karen D. Ammarell, Tina Anderson, Andrea Campbell and Patrick Blake, for all the patience, expertise and help. I want to thank my workmates, Beth Quattlebaum, Ryan Nelson, Ryan Diederick, Nate Bowman, Petra Olsen, Justine Flora and William Spears. Thank you for your help! Also, I want to thank Paula Lozano Masa, Iftheker Ahmed Khan, Chanil Jung, Linkel Boateng, Jiyong Heo, Nirupam Aich, Nabiul Rafi and Jaime Plazas Tuttle. I will miss you guys Thank you, Liang Li, Yang Cao, Ke Zhou, Jinzhu Zhou, Marilyn Basset, Tom Basset, Qinghui Huang and Hongquan Wang, for your friendship and generous help during the three years. The beautiful memories with you will be the life-time treasure for me. I would like to especially thank Liang Li, the best workmate and roommate, and Yang Cao who inspired me with her life style. I wish to reunite with you in the future! Thank you, my dear mother Shuyun Kang, father Zeng Lu, little sister Xiaoyu Lu, my beloved grandmother Shunzhen Zhang and grandfather Zhenjiang Lu. Thank you for shaping what I am today! Last and most importantly, I want to thank my husband Rixiang Huang, who just got his PhD at the same time with me. There is so much tough time since we got married. Both of us have grown a lot from it. I am looking forwards to experiencing whatever God give us in the future! iv ABSTRACT Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is an environmentally beneficial means to convert waste materials to value-added solid and liquid products with minimal greenhouse gas emission. Research is lacking on understanding the influence of critical process conditions on product formation and environmental implication associated with HTC of waste streams. This work was conducted to determine how reaction conditions and heterogeneous compound mixtures (representative of municipal wastes) influence hydrothermal carbonization processes. The specific experiments include: (1) determine how carbonization product properties are manipulated by controlling feedstock composition, process conditions, and catalyst addition; (2) determine if carbonization of heterogeneous mixtures follows similar pathways as that with pure feedstocks; and (3) evaluate and compare the carbon and energy-related implications associated with carbonization products with those associated with other common waste management processes for solid waste. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 1.1 MOTIVATION ................................................................................................... 1 1.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ............................................................................... 3 1.3 DISSERTATION ORGANIZATION ................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2. THERMAL CONVERSION OF MUNICIPASL SOLID WASTE VIA HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION: COMPARISON OF CARBONIZATION PRODUCTS FROM CURRENT WASTE MANAGEMENT OF TECHNIQUES .............................................................. 7 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 9 2.2 MECHANISMS OF HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION ...................... 12 2.3 MATERIALS AND METHODS ...................................................................... 18 2.4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ....................................................................... 24 2.5 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER 3. INFLURNCE OF REACTION TIME AND TEMPERATURE OF RPDUCT FROMATION AND CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION OF CELLULOSE .............. 48 3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 49 vi 3.2 ATERIALS AND METHODS.......................................................................... 52 3.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ....................................................................... 58 3.4 ONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................. 98 CHAPTER 4. INFLUENCE OF PROCESS WAATER QUALITY ON HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION OF CELLULOSE ........................ 99 4.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 100 4.2 MATERIALS AND METHODS .................................................................... 103 4.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................................... 107 4.4 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................. 142 CHAPTER 5. INFLUENCE OF FEEDSTOCK CHEMICAL COMPOSITION ON THE HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION OF MIXED FEEDSTOCKS...... 143 5.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 144 5.2 MATERIALS AND MATHODS .................................................................... 147 5.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................................... 153 5.4 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................. 189 5.5 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION .......................................................... 190 5.6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................ 192 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................... 193 6.1 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................. 193 6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE WORK .......................................... 195 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 197 APPENDIX A MANUSCRIPT PERMISSIONS .......................................................... 197 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Comparison of Operational Parameters and Product Distribution for Pyrolysis, Gasification,
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