A polymeric Brønsted acid ionic liquid mediated liquefaction of municipal solid waste.

The rapid industrialization and population explosion continuously generate massive amounts of municipal waste. Several conventional processes are in practice for the treatment of municipal waste, but the requirement of stringent operating conditions, incomplete conversion, longer processing time and emission of toxic gases, etc., are the major associated barriers. Thus, there is an urgent requirement for a sustainable, environmentally feasible process that can process waste into energy and fuel products. In the present manuscript, polyethylenimine functionalized polymeric Bronsted acid ionic liquid (PolyE-IL) catalysts have been explored for the Catalytic Thermo Liquefaction (CTL) of organic biodegradable municipal solid waste (MSW). A series of PolyE-IL catalysts with variable counter ions were examined for CTL of MSW. Of all the tested PolyE-IL catalysts, the integration of [PEI]+[HSO4]- gave excellent MSW conversion (>85%) and yield (>80%) of liquefied products (CTL-Oil) under non-stringent reaction conditions and without any formation char and gases. The influence of reaction conditions such as catalyst concentration, reaction temperature, time, slurry concentration, and type of feedstock of conversion and yield are studied. The column adsorption and membrane separation process was integrated to facilitate the catalyst and CTL-Oil separation. A series of commercially available hydrophobic resins were tested to separate catalyst and CTL-Oil. ICT005 showed the highest adsorption efficiency of all tested resins with 35.46 mg/mL of binding capacity and Kd of 0.02159. The physicochemical properties of CTL-Oil were studied in detail by using various analytical tools, which exhibited that CTL-Oil comprises a mixture of small and large molecular weight organic compounds and has a calorific value of 4000 kcal/kg; hence it could be used for further energy and fuel applications. Thus, the reported CTL process can be beneficial to resolve both environmental and fossil fuel dependency issues simultaneously by converting MSW into CTL-Oil.

BAILs mediated Catalytic Thermo Liquefaction (CTL) process to convert municipal solid waste into carbon densified liquid (CTL-Oil).

Continual increase in municipal solid waste (MSW) posing global environmental challenge which directed focus towards the waste to energy to achieve dual goal of waste minimization and energy generation. The present manuscript introducing Bronsted acid ionic liquids (BAILs) mediated Catalytic Thermo Liquefaction (CTL) process for conversion of MSW into carbon densified liquid (CTL-Oil) which can be used for multiple energy and fuel applications. BAILs with different counter ions were synthesized and tested for CTL of wet organic biodegradable MSW. The exploration of BAILs provides significant benefits in terms of operating conditions (120 °C, 90 min) with zero char and gases. Of the synthesized catalysts [Benz-SO3HIm]+[H2PO4]-,[Benz-SO3Him]+[HSO4]-,[Benz-SO3HIm]+[TsO]-and [BenzSO3HIm]+[TfO]-, BAIL with [HSO4]-counter ion showed a profound effect on CTL. The intensified CTL process resulted in > 85% MSW conversion with > 80% yield of CTL-Oil without any char and gas formation. Use of BAILs assisted the ease of dissolution and hydrolysis of biomass to produce CTL-Oil via hydrolysis, condensation, cyclization and dehydration reactions. The plausible mechanism for CTL has been proposed. The physicochemical analysis of CTL-Oil was conducted by using elemental analysis, Bomb calorimeter, GC-MS and ATR-FTIR. It was found that the CTL-Oil was rich source of C (48-55%), H (6-8%), O (30-41%) containing compounds such as long-chain hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, heterocyclic compounds, aldehydes, ketones and esters, etc. Furthermore, the calorific value of CTL-Oil was found to be 20-23 MJ/kg, thus it can be explored for multiple energy and fuel applications. However, the CTL process also adds several environmental and process economic benefits over the conventional waste liquefaction/disposal processes.