Research Projects

In developing country like India, solid waste management is one of the biggest issues which need urgent attention. Limited data regarding the waste collection, lack of infrastructure, increasing utilization of the packing material, lack of educational information about the waste, improper governmental policy to deal the waste generation, people attitude towards solving waste problem etc. are the reasons for the unavoidable persistent problems due to the mismanagement of the solid wastes. Therefore, the main aim of this proposal to convert solid waste to valuable end products with zero waste through a catalytic/noncatalytic co hydrothermal liquefaction process. In general, municipal solid waste (MSW) comprises of both wet (food waste/agricultural waste) and dry waste (Plastics). In India, segregation of waste is a biggest problem. Therefore, in this study, to replicate MSW as it is, a various ratio of wet and dry fraction is prepared as the feedstock. The main objective for this process to understand the integration between the wet and dry feedstock. As wet biomass contains high amount of moisture and dry waste mainly plastics have high carbon content and low moisture which complement each other during the Co HTL process which takes place in a water environment. In this work, a laboratory scale high pressure reactor will be designed to convert mixed waste to high value biocrude with biochar and uncondensed syngas. Co-HTL operates at mild temperature between 250°C to 400°C, high pressure (20-30 MPa), reactants residence time 10 -60 minutes and in presence or absence of catalyst. A range of parameters will be optimized such as ratio of water to feed, ratio of wet waste to dry wate, temperature, pressure, residence time, type of catalyst, solvent quantity to enhance the quality and quantity of the bio-crude. During Co-HTl, a range of reaction such as fragmentation, aromatization, dehydration, deoxygenations etc. happen when solid molecules of the wastes react with the sub critical water in the reaction. . Further, a hydrotreater will be designed for the upgrading of the biocrude to a renewable fuel equivalent to the petroleum-based transportation fuel. Finally, a detailed cradle to grave life cycle assessment will be carried out to estimate the environmental footprint of the integrated co-hydrothermal liquefaction with hydrotreating process to produce renewable fuel from the combined wet and dry wastes. The unit processes that are involved are waste collection, waste transportation to the plant gate, waste conversion to intermediate product using Co-HTL, upgrading to renewable fuel through hydrotreating and final utilization of the end product. The outcomes from the life cycle study will be reported as emission in CO2 equivalent per MJ of renewable fuel produced. Also, net energy ratio will be estimated for the whole pathway which is defined as renewable energy output from the process to the fossil fuel input to the process.