Abstract:
Abstract: Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a kind of technology that can convert wet organic waste into energy. Toilet feces contain many pathogens, which can cause pollution to groundwater. Crude glycerol is a byproduct in the process of bio-diesel production. The rational utilization of crude glycerol is of great importance to reduce the cost and mitigate the environmental pollution in large-scale bio-diesel production. By doing this, we can achieve the harmless treatment of toilet feces, the reuse of crude glycerol, and energy production. In this study, the toilet feces and crude glycerol were used as the feedstock for biocrude oil production via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). The effects of different mass ratios of toilet feces to crude glycerol (1∶0, 3∶1, 2∶1, 1∶1, 1∶2, 1∶3, 0∶1) on the liquefaction products (biocrude oil, aqueous phase, solid residue and gas) yield, liquefaction rate, energy recovery rate and biocrude oil properties were investigated at the optimal reaction condition (reaction temperature: 340 ℃, retention time: 10 min, and total solid: 25%) from the previous study. The highest biocrude oil yield of 40.6% reached under the mass ratio of toilet feces to crude glycerol 1∶3, increased by 18% compared with using feces only. Meanwhile, the highest liquefaction rate was 94.8%, increased by 15%. Crude glycerol had a beneficial effect on the HTL conversion of toilet feces. This was due to the methanol and organic acids in crude glycerol, which could promote the formation of biocrude oil during HTL. The high heating value (HHV) of biocrude oil was 40.29 MJ/kg, increased by 97.8% compared with toilet feces. However, adding crude glycerol to the toilet feces had little effect on the HHV of biocrude oil. The lowest water content in biocrude oil was 0.23% under the mass ratio of toilet feces to crude glycerol 1:2. Gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) was performed to understand the composition of biocrude oil. The hydrocarbons contents of biocrude were increased after adding crude glycerol to the toilet feces. The acids in biocrude oil were decreased significantly (26%-44%), indicating that the biocrude oil was more stable. However, the content of nitrogen-containing compounds in biocrude oil increased after adding crude glycerol indicated that denitrogenation was required before the biocrude oil using as the transport fuel. A thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA) was used to simulate the distribution of boiling points in biocrude oil. The increase of the light fraction and the reduction of the residue fraction of toilet feces biocrude oil after adding crude glycerol indicated that crude glycerol could improve the quality of toilet feces biocrude oil via HTL. In addition, the energy recovery rate was 85% under the mass ratio of toilet feces and crude glycerol 1:3. It was 25% higher than that of using toilet feces only. From the perspective of environment and energy, adding crude glycerol to toilet waste during the HTL process is expected to be an effective way to solve the toilet feces problem.