Autor(es):
Longo, Andrei ; Brito, Paulo ; Gonçalves, Margarida ; Nobre, Catarina
Data: 2025
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/190116
Origem: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Projeto/bolsa:
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB%2F05064%2F2020/PT;
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/Concurso de avaliação no âmbito do Programa Plurianual de Financiamento de Unidades de I&D (2017%2F2018) - Financiamento Base/UIDB%2F04077%2F2020/PT;
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDP%2F04077%2F2020/PT;
Assunto(s): Animal fat; Carbonization; Energy recovery; Refused derived fuel; Materials Science(all); Instrumentation; Engineering(all); Process Chemistry and Technology; Computer Science Applications; Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes; SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
Descrição
Funding Information: This work was co-funded by: Compete 2020, Portugal 2020, and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund—FEDER within the scope of the project AmbWTE: Biomass & Waste to Energy System project (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039838); Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P. (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), under projects UIDB/05064/2020 (VALORIZA—Research Centre for Endogenous Resource Valorization), UIDB/04077/2020-2023 and UIDP/04077/2020-2023 (MEtRICs—Mechanical Engineering and Resource Sustainability Center); Alentejo2020 (Regional Operational Program of Alentejo), grant no. ALT20-05-3559-FSE-000035. Publisher Copyright: © 2025 by the authors.
The demand for clean energy to improve waste valorization and enhance resource utilization efficiency has been increasingly recognized in the last few years. In this context, the co-carbonization of different waste streams, aiming at solid fuel production, appears as a potential strategy to address the challenges of the energy transition and divert waste from landfills. In this work, refuse-derived fuel (RDF) samples were subjected to the co-carbonization process with low-quality animal fat waste in different proportions to assess the synergistic effect of the mixture on producing chars with enhanced fuel properties. Dry (DC) and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) tests were conducted at 425 °C and 300 °C, respectively, with a residence time of 30 min. The RDF sample and produced chars with different animal fat incorporation were analyzed for their physical, chemical, and fuel properties. The results demonstrated that increasing the fat proportion in the samples leads to an increase in mass yield and apparent density of the produced chars. Furthermore, char samples with higher fat addition presented a proportional increase in high heating value (HHV). The highest values for the HHV corresponded to the char samples produced with 30% fat incorporation for both carbonization techniques (27.9 MJ/kg and 32.9 MJ/kg for dry and hydrothermal carbonization, respectively). Fat addition also reduced ash content, improved hydrophobicity in hydrochars, and lowered ignition temperature, although additional washing was necessary to reduce chlorine to acceptable levels. Furthermore, fat incorporation reduced concentrations of elements linked to slagging and fouling. Overall, the results demonstrate that incorporating 30% fat into RDF during DC or HTC is the most effective condition for producing chars with improved physical, chemical, and fuel properties, enhancing their potential as alternative solid fuels.
