Hydrothermal liquefaction technology has been promoted as a viable pathway to producing SAF from sewage sludge at an expected cost of $2.89/gge. However, the aqueous stream from wet-waste HTL contains up to 33% of the carbon from the feed, and has high COD (&gt;50,000ppm). It contains various kinds of oxygenates and nitrogenated compounds which is too dilute for upgrading processes, yet too concentrated to be disposed to a water and energy recovery facility. This dilemma however can be mitigated by utilizing cross-flow membranes system such as reverse osmosis and nanofiltration to concentrate the aqueous stream to at least twice of its original concentration at a reasonable flux (up to 20 L/h/m<sup>2</sup>) and high rejection rate (up to 98%) in the retentate side and enables upgrading processes to convert the carbons to valuable carboxylic acids and recovery of the nitrogen as ammonia for use as fertilizer. In the permeate side, cleaner water with low COD (&lt;2000ppm) is achieved, and can be easily disposed, or recycled back as a process water. The research will include potential improvements for membrane fouling mitigation and cost estimation of incorporating this technology in the HTL-to-SAF pathway.

Membrane dewatering of aqueous waste from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to enable production of sustainable aviation fuel from sewage sludge.

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.