Effects of Pyrolysis Temperature and Retention Time on Fuel Characteristics of Food Waste Feedstuff and Compost for Co-Firing in Coal Power Plants

Food waste is an underutilized organic resource given its abundance and high potential energy. The purpose of this study was to confirm the suitability of pyrolyzed food waste as a co-firing fuel by adjusting the pyrolysis temperature (300–500 °C) and retention time (15–60 min). Both high moisture (...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnergies (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 23; p. 4538
Main Authors Lee, Ye-Eun, Shin, Dong-Chul, Jeong, Yoonah, Kim, I-Tae, Yoo, Yeong-Seok
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 2019
Subjects
Agricultural wastes
Ashes
Biological activity
Biomass
Byproducts
Carbon
Chloride
Chlorine
Coal-fired power plants
Composting
Composts
Decomposition
Drying
Energy
Food
Food waste
Fourier transforms
Gases
Hardwoods
Heat
Identification methods
Leaching
Microorganisms
Moisture content
Nitrogen
Organic matter
Potassium
Power plants
Pyrolysis
Raw materials
Recycling centers
Research methodology
Retention
Retention time
Salt
Slagging
Studies
Temperature
Water content
United States > US
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Summary:Food waste is an underutilized organic resource given its abundance and high potential energy. The purpose of this study was to confirm the suitability of pyrolyzed food waste as a co-firing fuel by adjusting the pyrolysis temperature (300–500 °C) and retention time (15–60 min). Both high moisture (compost) and low moisture (feedstuff) food waste were examined. Increasing the temperature and retention time yielded more volatile H and O as well as C sequestration, resulting in reduced H/C and O/C ratios. Notably, the van Krevelen diagram increased in similarity to that of coal. Upon pyrolyzing food waste compost, more than half of the chloride was volatilized, the highest carbon content of the compost and feedstuff were 61.35% and 54.12%, respectively, after pyrolysis at 400 °C for 60 min; however, the calorific value of the pyrolyzed feedstuff was reduced owing to the high salt concentration. The pyrolyzed compost and feedstuff had high Ca contents, which contributed to an increased ash fusion temperature. Therefore, food waste byproducts are advantageous as co-firing fuels in terms of energy regeneration. Nevertheless, further research is required regarding the removal of salt and alkali earth metal ion materials.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en12234538