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

垃圾发电（WTE）技术提供了有前景的解决方案，可以缓解与垃圾填埋相关的环境问题，同时促进资源和能源的回收。然而，这些技术受到组合垃圾成分混合不均匀的严重影响。在这些垃圾处理技术中使用城市生活垃圾可能造成的一些问题包括污染产品、产品价值低、处理过程中的污染物排放、反应器堵塞、腐蚀和催化剂中毒。该项目的目的是开发一种结合生活垃圾的预处理工艺，以生产生物炼制化学品、更高质量的合成气或热解油，并减少污染副产品。该项目的成功可能导致一种创新的绿色垃圾处理技术，可以将不可回收的城市生活垃圾转化为能源和有价值的化学品的家庭来源，从而通过减少城市生活垃圾填埋场的压力来造福社会。除了从大量的城市生活垃圾中生产高质量的合成气或热解油外，生产生物炼制化学品可以降低生物炼制的原料成本，提高生物炼制的经济可持续性，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制化学品的潜在来源。本研究提出了两步法转化，以回收这些废物中的多糖的经济价值，并从这些废物中生产出质量更好的合成气或热解油品。本文提出的方法将混合生活垃圾的极性-非质子溶剂解预处理与随后的气化或热解热转化相结合，将生活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。具体来说，提议的方法将利用污染物酸作为催化剂，将原料水分作为助溶剂，生产生物炼制化学品，以及更清洁、更高BTU的合成气或热解油。采用可回收的生物基绿色溶剂，可进一步提高拟议方法的环境效益和经济效益。本研究的主要重点是对溶剂预处理、生物炼制化学品的选择性、合成气/热解油的质量以及城市生活垃圾转化过程中污染物的形成和迁移之间的相互依存关系有新的认识。该研究成果将为有机和合成废弃物极性-非质子溶剂基转化过程中所需的反应、产物输运和产物回收提供重要的基础机制和见解。在本研究过程中获得的知识将为开发一种新的非回收混合城市生活垃圾WTE策略奠定坚实的基础，以实现高质量的产品，同时减少污染物。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.