Transforming sludge into energy: impact of blend percentage on energy recovery potential and environmental benefits of co-combustion of wastewater sludge and coal in Brazil

IF 7.1 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL

Waste management Pub Date : 2025-01-15 DOI:10.1016/j.wasman.2025.01.016

Sabrina Camera da Silva , Caroline Rodrigues , George Clarke Bleyer , Raiane da Cruz , Flavio Michels Bianchi , Elaine Virmond , Elise Sommer Watzko

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Abstract

Proper waste management and sustainable energy production are crucial for human development. For this purpose, this study evaluates the impact of blending percentage on energy recovery potential and environmental benefits of co-combustion of wastewater sludge and Brazilian low-rank coal. The sludge and coal were characterised in terms of their potential as fuel and co-combustion tests were carried out in a pilot-scale bubbling fluidised bed focused on the influence of the percentage of sludge mixture on the behaviour of co-combustion with coal in terms of flue gas composition and fluidised bed temperature stability. Sludge has a higher heating value (16.276 MJ/kg) than coal (15.486 MJ/kg) and a higher fuel ratio (8.48 vs. 0.21). The O₂ and CO₂ levels found in the co-combustion tests, together with a very low CO concentration, indicate good combustion. However, the NO_x emission was considerable, varying from 825.2 ± 94.5 to 1,320.5 ± 33.8 mg/m³ (O_2ref = 7 %), pointing to the need for actions to reduce atmospheric pollution. Coal had higher ash content (52.64 % vs. 25.00 % d.b.). The temperatures in the bed region and in the combustion region showed similar behaviour for all the fuels. The addition of sewage sludge to mineral coal reduced the ash content without increasing the ash fusibility risk in the combustion temperature range evaluated. These findings suggest that sludge addition in co-combustion with coal offers promising results for both energy production and environmental sustainability.

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污泥转化为能源：巴西污水污泥与煤共燃烧的混合百分比对能源回收潜力和环境效益的影响。

适当的废物管理和可持续的能源生产对人类发展至关重要。为此，本研究评估了掺混比例对废水污泥与巴西低阶煤共燃的能量回收潜力和环境效益的影响。污泥和煤在作为燃料的潜力方面进行了表征，并在一个中试规模的鼓泡流化床中进行了共燃烧试验，重点研究了污泥混合物的百分比对与煤共燃烧行为在烟气成分和流化床温度稳定性方面的影响。污泥的热值（16.276 MJ/kg）高于煤（15.486 MJ/kg），燃料比（8.48 vs. 0.21）更高。在共燃测试中发现的O2和CO2水平，以及非常低的CO浓度，表明燃烧良好。然而，氮氧化物排放量相当大，从825.2±94.5到1320.5±33.8 mg/m3 (O2ref = 7%)，表明需要采取措施减少大气污染。煤的灰分含量较高（52.64% vs. 25.00%）。所有燃料的床区温度和燃烧区温度表现出相似的行为。在评价的燃烧温度范围内，向矿煤中添加污泥降低了灰分含量，但没有增加灰分的熔融风险。这些发现表明，在与煤共燃烧中添加污泥对能源生产和环境可持续性都有很好的效果。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Waste management 环境科学-工程：环境

CiteScore

15.60

自引率

6.20%

发文量

492

审稿时长

39 days

期刊介绍： Waste Management is devoted to the presentation and discussion of information on solid wastes,it covers the entire lifecycle of solid. wastes. Scope: Addresses solid wastes in both industrialized and economically developing countries Covers various types of solid wastes, including: Municipal (e.g., residential, institutional, commercial, light industrial) Agricultural Special (e.g., C and D, healthcare, household hazardous wastes, sewage sludge)