Sustainably meeting rising global food and energy demands is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. The inextricable nature of food, energy and water (FEW) systems requires solutions that ensure resiliency and longevity of resources for future generations. We must develop core competencies at the FEW nexus including: (1) the production of energy from waste precursors that do not compete with arable land for food or tax our over-burdened water supply and (2) the ability to provide clean drinking water to a growing and urbanizing population in an era of climate change and resource scarcity. Using different biomass wastes (including agricultural and municipal solid waste) with inexpensive in situ catalysts such as clay minerals and coal fly ash, we can catalytically upgrade both pyrolysis and hydrothermally carbonized biofuels. At the same time, this co-carbonization produces heterogeneous sorbent materials that show superior performance to the pure biochar or hydrochars. Adsorption studies show that heterogeneous biochars made of wheat straw and coal fly ash adsorb heavy metals at a faster uptake rate and a higher capacity than the biochar alone. Similarly, avocado pits hydrothermally carbonized with bentonite clay show adsorption capacities more than three times higher than the hydrochars alone. During pyrolysis, bentonite can improve gas yields (esp. H2 and CH4) from two waste biomasses (pineapple plant and mango pits), but fuel upgrading was biomass-dependent; co-pyrolysis of mango pits and bentonite increased monolingols, alkanes, and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural and decreased polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The effect was opposite for pineapple plant biomass.

Thermochemical conversions of mixed waste streams to engineer sustainable biofuels and water treatment materials

2019 Spring National Meeting

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