Integrating Polar-Aprotic Solvolysis into Waste-To-Energy Conversion

垃圾转化能源(WTE)技术在促进资源和能源回收的同时，为缓解与污水处理过程中产生的城市固体废物(MSW)填埋相关的环境问题提供了有前途的解决方案。然而，这些技术受到混合垃圾成分混合不均匀的严重影响。在这些WTE技术中使用城市生活垃圾可能导致的一些问题包括产品受污染、产品价值低、加工过程中的污染物排放、反应堆堵塞、腐蚀和催化剂中毒。本项目的目标是开发一种组合垃圾的前处理工艺，以生产高质量的合成气或热解油，以及较少的污染副产物。该项目的成功可能会带来一种创新的绿色WTE技术，可以将不可回收的垃圾转化为国内能源和有价值的化学品，从而通过减轻垃圾填埋场的压力造福社会。除了从丰富的生活垃圾中生产高质量的合成气或热解油外，生产生物精炼化学品还可以提供机会，降低生物精炼的原料成本，提高生物精炼的经济可持续性，同时减少国家对化石燃料的依赖。混合的城市生活垃圾可以由近60%的纤维素废物组成，使这些废物成为低成本生物炼油化学品的潜在来源。这项研究提出了一种两步转化的方法，从这些废物中的多糖中回收经济价值，并从这些废物中生产质量更好的合成气或热解油产品。本文提出的将共混垃圾的极性-非质子溶解预处理与随后的气化或热解热转化相结合的方法，将把垃圾材料的有害特性转化为增加产品价值和减少污染物排放的资产。具体地说，该方法将利用污染酸作为催化剂，将原料水分作为共溶剂，除了生产更清洁和更高BTU的合成气或裂解油外，还将生产生物精炼化学品。通过使用可回收的生物基绿色溶剂，将进一步提高拟议方法的环境和经济效益。这项研究的主要目的是对溶剂预处理、生物炼制化学品的选择性、合成气/裂解油的质量以及污染物的形成和迁移对垃圾转化的相互影响有新的认识。研究成果将为混合有机和合成废物的极性-非质子溶剂转化过程中所需的反应、产品传输和产品回收提供重要的基本机理和见解。在这项研究中获得的知识将为开发一种新的WTE战略奠定坚实的基础，该战略针对非回收的混合垃圾，以在减少污染的同时实现高质量的产品。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Waste-To-Energy (WTE) technologies offer promising solutions to alleviate environmental problems associated with landfilling of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) generated during wastewater treatment processes while promoting resource and energy recovery. However, these technologies are crucially affected by the uneven mixing of combined MSW compositions. Some of the possible problems caused by the use of MSW for these WTE technologies include contaminated products, low product values, pollutant emission during processing, reactor clogging, corrosion, and catalyst poisoning. The objective of this project is to develop a pretreatment process for combined MSW to produce biorefinery chemicals, higher quality syngas or pyrolysis oil, and fewer pollution byproducts. The success of the project could lead to an innovative green WTE technology that can convert non-recyclable MSW to a domestic source for energy and valuable chemicals, thus, benefiting society by reducing the pressure of MSW landfills. Producing biorefinery chemicals, in addition to high-quality syngas or pyrolysis oil from abundant MSW, can provide an opportunity to lower the feedstock cost in biorefining and improve the economic sustainability of biorefineries while reducing the Nation's dependency on fossil fuels. Co-mingled MSW can consist of nearly 60% cellulosic wastes, making these wastes a potential source of low-cost biorefinery chemicals. This research proposes a two-step conversion to recover the economic value from the polysaccharides in these wastes as well as to produce better quality syngas or pyrolysis oil products from these wastes. The proposed approach to properly integrate polar-aprotic solvolysis pretreatment of co-mingled MSW with subsequent thermal conversion by gasification or pyrolysis will transform the detrimental characteristics of MSW materials into assets that increase product values and reduce pollutant emissions. Specifically, the proposed approach will utilize the contaminant acids as catalysts and the feedstock moisture as a co-solvent to produce biorefinery chemicals in addition to cleaner and higher BTU syngas or pyrolysis oil. The environmental and economic benefits of the proposed approach will be further enhanced by the use of recyclable biobased green-solvents. The main focus of the proposed research is to gain new insights into the interdependency among the solvent pretreatment, the selectivity of biorefinery chemicals, the quality of syngas/pyrolysis oil, and contaminant formation and transport on MSW conversion. The research outcomes will provide important fundamental mechanisms and insights pertinent to the required reactions, product transport, and product recovery during the polar-aprotic solvent-based conversion of co-mingled organic and synthetic waste materials. The knowledge obtained during this research will lay a strong foundation for the development of a novel WTE strategy for non-recycled co-mingled MSW to achieve high-quality products while reducing pollutants.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.