Potential use of waste activated sludge hydrothermally treated as a renewable fuel or activated carbon precursor

In this work, dewatered waste activated sludge (DWAS) was subjected to hydrothermal carbonization to obtain hydrochars that can be used as renewable solid fuels or activated carbon precursors. A central composite rotatable design was used to analyze the effect of temperature (140–220 ◦C) and reactio...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Villamil, J. A., Díaz Nieto, Elena, Rubia Romero, María de los Ángeles de la, Fernández Mohedano, Ángel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/720779
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/720779
https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules25153534
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Activated carbon
adsorption
chemical activation
hydrochar
hydrothermal carbonization
low-cost adsorbent
physical activation
Química
Descripción
Sumario:In this work, dewatered waste activated sludge (DWAS) was subjected to hydrothermal carbonization to obtain hydrochars that can be used as renewable solid fuels or activated carbon precursors. A central composite rotatable design was used to analyze the effect of temperature (140–220 ◦C) and reaction time (0.5–4 h) on the physicochemical properties of the products. The hydrochars exhibited increased heating values (up to 22.3 MJ/kg) and their air-activation provided carbons with a low BET area (100 m2/g). By contrast, chemical activation with K2CO3, KOH, FeCl3 and ZnCl2 gave carbons with a well-developed porous network (BET areas of 410–1030 m2/g) and substantial contents in mesopores (0.079–0.271 cm3/g) and micropores (0.136–0.398 cm3/g). The chemically activated carbons had a fairly good potential to adsorb emerging pollutants such as sulfamethoxazole, antipyrine and desipramine from the liquid phase. This was especially the case with KOH-activated hydrochars, which exhibited a maximum adsorption capacity of 412, 198 and 146 mg/g, respectively, for the previous pollutants