Thermochemical processing of solid waste at high temperature and high pressure to produce high-value products and energy

加拿大是世界上产生城市固体废物最多的国家之一，2008年人均处置了777公斤城市固体废物(加拿大统计局[2008])。这些生活垃圾中只有25%被回收利用，约3%在焚烧炉中被转化为热能和电力。由于渗滤液和垃圾填埋气的排放，在最好的情况下只有80%的垃圾可以被捕获，垃圾填埋场仍然是废物处理的主要手段，这是一个环境问题。非居住垃圾的产生也是一个令人关切的问题，因为它占加拿大总废物产生的三分之二。此外，考虑到世界垃圾产生量预计将从2012年的13亿吨/年增加到2025年的22亿吨/年和2050年的42亿吨/年，废物管理是一个全球关切的问题(世界银行报告[2012])。它将改善加拿大的环境表现，为其工业提供新的收入来源，并使其工业更具竞争力。为了利用和评估废物，由于废物分类过程的交叉污染和局限性，回收在技术上和经济上并不总是可行的。废物转化为能源(WTE)和废物转化为化学品的过程是废物利用和定价的很有前途的途径。目前，焚烧是应用最广泛的垃圾处理技术，但考虑到它只产生热量和电力，效率低(13%-24%)，而且会产生污染物排放(SOx、NOx、UHCS、VOCs、二恶英、呋喃和PM)，因此其废物定价的潜力有限。热解和气化是提高垃圾处理效率和将废物转化为高价值化学品的很有前途的技术。目前对废气气化和热解的研究大多是在400°C-1000°C的常压和温度范围内进行的，在高压和高温(HP-HT)下操作这些过程可能会提供一些显著的优势：(1)由于取消了下游设备(压缩机)而降低了固定资本成本，(2)由于反应速度的提高而减小了反应器和管道的尺寸，(3)提高了工艺效率等。缺乏高压高温(HP-HT)的实验研究，这仍然是一个相对未被探索的研究领域。*本提案旨在产生关于固体废物在高温(400°C-1600°C)和高压(1-30大气压)(HT-HP)下的热解、气化和燃烧实验的新知识。

Canadians are among the greatest producers of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the World with 777 kg of MSW per capita disposed in 2008 (Statistics Canada [2008]). Only 25% of these MSW are recycled and approximately 3% are converted to heat and electricity in incinerators. Landfills are still used as the primary means for waste disposal, which represents an environmental concern due to leachate and landfill gas emissions, which only 80% can be captured in best cases. Non-residential waste production is also a concern as it accounted for two-thirds of total waste production in Canada. Furthermore, waste management is a global concern considering that the World's MSW production rate is expected to grow from 1.3 billion tons/year in 2012 to 2.2 billion tonnes/year in 2025 and to 4.2 billion tons/year in 2050 (World Bank report [2012]).***In a context of depleting reserves of conventional and easily processable resources as well as increasing stringent environmental regulations, Canadians would greatly benefit from a better utilization and valorization of waste. It would improve Canada's environmental performance, offer new revenue streams for its industries and make its industries more competitive. To utilize and valorize waste, recycling is not always technically and economically possible due to cross-contamination and limitations of waste separation processes. Waste-to-energy (WTE) and waste-to-chemicals processes are promising avenues for waste utilization and valorization. Currently, incineration is the most widely used WTE technology, but it has a limited potential for waste valorization considering that it only generates heat and electricity, it has a low efficiency (13-24 %) and it produces pollutant emissions (SOx, NOx, UHCs, VOCs, dioxins, furans and PM). Pyrolysis and gasification are promising technologies to increase WTE process efficiencies and convert waste into high-value chemicals. Current research on waste gasification and pyrolysis is mostly performed at ambient pressure and temperatures in the range of 400°C-1000°C. Operating these processes at high pressure and high temperature (HP-HT) may offer some significant advantages: (1) reduction of the fixed capital costs due to the elimination of downstream equipment (compressors), (2) reduced reactor and piping dimensions due to increased reaction rates, (3) increased process efficiency, etc. However, there is a lack of experimental research at high pressure and high temperature (HP-HT) and it remains a relatively unexplored area of research.***The present proposal is intended to generate novel knowledge on the pyrolysis, gasification, and combustion experiments of solid waste materials at high temperatures (400°C-1600°C) and high pressures (1-30 atm) (HT-HP).**