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Coupling hydrothermal liquefaction and membrane distillation to treat anaerobic digestate from food and dairy farm waste
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Coupling hydrothermal liquefaction and membrane distillation to treat anaerobic digestate from food and dairy farm waste

Unnati Rao, Roy Posmanik, Lindsay E. Hatch, Jefferson W. Tester, Sharon L. Walker, Kelley C. Barsanti and David Jassby
Bioresource technology, v 267, pp 408-415
01 Nov 2018
PMID: 30032054
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2018.07.064View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (Publisher-Specific) Open

Abstract

Hydrothermal liquefaction Membrane distillation Nutrient recovery Residual heat Water treatment
[Display omitted] •Hydrothermal liquefaction is used to convert food and dairy waste into biocrude oil.•Membrane distillation can be driven by residual heat from the hydrothermal system.•Membrane distillation is used to treat hydrothermal liquefaction effluent.•Membrane distillation achieved water recovery of 75% without experiencing wetting.•Membrane distillation retentate can be used as high-strength phosphate fertilizer. Increased demand for water, energy and food requires new ways to produce fertilizers, fuels and reusable water. Recovery of resources from wastes could lead to an additional source of energy and nutrients, and also reduce the waste to be disposed. In this work, we used hydrothermal liquefaction to produce a biocrude oil product, followed by membrane distillation of the aqueous effluents to concentrate a nutrient-rich stream that can be used as fertilizer. The motivation for this work is that residual heat from the hydrothermal liquefaction process could be utilized to drive the membrane distillation process, which would improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of the distillation process. The membrane distillation system was demonstrated to be able to recover 75% of the water. The membrane distillation retentate had very high ammonium and phosphate concentrations, making it suitable as a fertilizer. Membrane permeate contained high concentrations of volatile organics.

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50 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#6 Clean Water and Sanitation

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Agricultural Engineering
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Energy & Fuels
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