A pyrolysis process coupled to a catalytic cracking stage: A potential waste-to-energy solution for mattress foam waste.

Pyrolysis coupled to either thermal or catalytic cracking of mattress foam waste was performed in a laboratory-scale facility consisting of a fixed-bed reactor joined to a tubular cracking reactor. The results showed a great potential for the production of syngas specially at high cracking temperatures. Particularly, fixing 800 °C in the cracking reactor, a CO and CH4 rich gas with a remarkable amount of H2 was obtained. The addition of catalysts (dolomite, olivine or HiFUEL®) significantly decreased undesirable tar formation, (below 10 wt%), simultaneously increasing the gas yield and keeping CO and CH4 as the main components in the stream, becoming a preferable route that the non-catalytic process. Accordingly, this stream could be used preferably for further applications in energy generation because its heating value ranged between 15.7 MJ/Nm3 and 19.6 MJ/Nm3. In particular, the gas obtained by the use of dolomite could be advantageous for the production of organic compounds such as dimethyl ether (DME) as well as its use an engine or boiler to generate electricity in small facilities. In addition, the solid fraction obtained after de process could be used as a medium quality refused derived fuel (LHV ~ 12 MJ/kg) in order to support the internal energy requirements of the process.

A combined two-stage process of pyrolysis and catalytic cracking of municipal solid waste for the production of syngas and solid refuse-derived fuels.

Pyrolysis combined to either thermal cracking or catalytic cracking of municipal solid waste was performed in a laboratory-scale facility consisting of a fixed-bed reactor followed by a tubular cracking reactor. The results showed great potential for the production of syngas. The incorporation of inexpensive and widely available dolomite in the cracking reactor (with a constant feedstock to calcined dolomite ratio of 5:1) favoured the catalytic cracking of the primary pyrolysis products towards H2 and CO in a temperature range of 800-900 °C. More particularly, it was possible at 900 °C to achieve a syngas consisting of more than 80 vol% CO and H2 with a heating value of 16 MJ/Nm3. Additionally, a homogeneous solid fuel was obtained as a solid residue, which can be used to provide additional energy to support the process or as a refuse-derived fuel. Thus, the great potential of this process was demonstrated for turning municipal solid waste into a valuable gas fraction that can be used directly as a fuel or as a source of different value-added products.

Carbon Nanotube Film Electrodes with Acrylic Additives: Blocking Electrochemical Charge Transfer Reactions.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) processed into conductive films by liquid phase deposition technologies reveal increasing interest as electrode components in electrochemical device platforms for sensing and energy storage applications. In this work we show that the addition of acrylic latex to water-based CNT inks not only favors the fabrication of stable and robust flexible electrodes on plastic substrates but, moreover, sensitively enables the control of their electrical and electrochemical transport properties. Importantly, within a given concentration range, the acrylic additive in the films, being used as working electrodes, effectively blocks undesired faradaic transfer reactions across the electrode-electrolyte interface while maintaining their capacitance response as probed in a three-electrode electrochemical device configuration. Our results suggest a valuable strategy to enhance the chemical stability of CNT film electrodes and to suppress non-specific parasitic electrochemical reactions of relevance to electroanalytical and energy storage applications.