Catalytic liquefaction of human feces over Ni-Tm/TiO2 catalyst and the influence of operating conditions on products.

In this study, human feces were hydrothermal liquefied and converted into biocrude over Ni-Tm/TiO2 catalyst. The influence of catalysts, reaction temperature, and holding time on the distribution of products and element content of biocrude was assessed. The biocrude yield increased to 53.16% with a reaction temperature of 330 °C, a holding time of 30 min, and adding Ni-Tm/TiO2 catalyst while the liquefaction conversion peaked at 89.61%. The biocrude had an HHV of 36.64 MJ/kg and was similar to heavy crude oil. The biocrude is rich in fatty acid amides, esters, and oxygen-containing-only heteroatom-ring compounds as well as some nitrogen-containing heteroatom-ring compounds. The main gaseous products were CO2, CH4, and C2H6. Hydrothermal liquefaction over Ni-Tm/TiO2 catalyst could be a potential method to handle human excrement treatment and produce biofuel.

[Effect of Cu-Ce/γ-Al2O3 catalyst on bio-oil production by hydrothermal deoxygenation of stearic acid].

In order to improve the hydrothermal deoxygenation of organic acids as well as to reduce the cost, we prepared a Cu-Ce/γ-Al2O3 catalyst to study the hydrothermal deoxygenation of stearic acid in the absence of H2. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area and X-ray diffraction pattern suggest that both CuO and CeO2 exist in the Cu-Ce/γ-Al2O3 catalyst. The crystals of Cu-Ce/γ-Al2O3 were more stable compared with those of the Cu/γ-Al2O3 catalyst after 12 h of hydrothermal liquefaction at 300℃, thereby indicating a better thermal stability of the former. The presence of Cu-Ce/γ-Al2O3 catalyst could greatly improve the conversion of stearic acid (94.71%) and the yield of hydrocarbon (81.41%). A preliminary analysis of the mechanism suggests that decarboxylation is the main step in the deoxygenation during the hydrothermal liquefaction of stearic acid. The addition of Cu/γ-Al2O3 and Cu-Ce/γ-Al2O3 decreased the yield of n-heptadecane and increased the yield of n-octadecane. Besides, the yields of n-paraffins increased drastically from 0.45% to 49.72% along the series from n-nonane to n-hexadecane. Thus, the cracking reactions could be improved in the presence of Cu-Ce/γ-Al2O3, suggesting that it is an efficient deoxygenation catalyst in the hydrothermal liquefaction of organic acid. In addition, the Cu-Ce/γ-Al2O3 catalyst could help in removing the carbonyl groups, and this effectively reduced the amounts of aldehydes and ketones in the bio-oil.

Effect of operating conditions on hydrothermal liquefaction of Spirulina over Ni/TiO2 catalyst.

In this study, the effects of reaction temperature, holding time, algae/water ratio and catalyst dosage on the yield and quality of bio-oil produced via the HTL of Spirulina were investigated. The maximum bio-oil yield (43.05 wt%) and energy recovery (ER) value (64.62%) were obtained at 260 °C for 30 min, with an algae/water ratio of 1/4 and a catalyst dosage of 5 wt%. The bio-oil samples were characterized by elemental analysis, Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), Fourier Transform Infrared (FI-IR), and Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). Results indicated that higher heating values (HHVs) of bio-oils were in the range of 27.28-36.01 MJ/kg, and main compounds of bio-oil were amides, esters, nitriles, hydroperoxide and alkanes. Adding of the Ni/TiO2 catalyst can decrease the contents of oxygenated and nitrogenous compounds and promote the formation of desirable components such as esters and alkanes.