Progress 06/15/21 to 12/19/22
Outputs
Target Audience:1. Farmers were reached directly through our collaboration with the University of Idaho Extension. Most Idaho farmers burn agricultural plastic waste at the end of the harvesting season. This project promotedthe creation of value-added products by utilizing agricultural waste and improving waste management practices, which wouldresult in regional economic rural development. 2. Industry members were approached at an international conference where we presented our work and discussed the potential for scaling up and deploying the technology to rural and urban areas to generate energy and other valuable products (e.g., soil amendments), improve waste management status quo, and mitigate environmental concerns, which would ultimately provide jobs and enhance economic development and viability in the subject industries. Changes/Problems:Although we have been able toup-scale the process and obtain a remarkableyield (~65%), the amount of product is still not sufficient to conductthe combustion experiments. We were able to pyrolyze up to 40 grams of feedstock at each run and convert up to 65% to liquid fuel. At this rate, we needed to repeat the pyrolysis of each feedstock at least 15 times to obtain sufficient amounts of products forcombustion analysis. The fuel combustion experiments wereplannedto be conducted in theDepartment of Mechanical Engineering in the last phase of the project.The PI has accepted a new position and needsto terminate his post-doctoral appointmentsix months earlier than the original end date of the project. Therefore,there will not be enough time toreplicate the pyrolysisexperiments and collect sufficient amounts of fuel. The Forest and Sustainable Products program at the University of Idaho is in possession of all equipment and tools purchased and designed for this project. The project mentor will continue to work in this field and plan to focus on large-scale fuel production and fuel combustion experimentsusing acquired equipment. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The PI has presented this research at the College of Natural Resources Graduate Seminar, which allowed him to connect with students and peers in other disciplines and initiate collaborative research with departments such as Mechanical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering. The PI has also presented this research at the tcbiomass conference in Denver, CO. During the conference, the PI attended multiple presentation sessions and learned about cutting-edge research and new ideas in the area of thermochemical conversion and sustainable energy production. In general, this project has enhanced our research capacity in the multi-disciplinary area of valorization of waste and energy recovery via catalytic pyrolysis and sustainable fuel production and has given us a deeper understanding of the whole process. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have published the result in Catalyst at MDPI(https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12111381)which is considered ahigh-impact andprestigious Journal in this field. In collaboration with the University of Idaho Extension, we have connected with local farmers and provided information about this project. We have presented the results of this project at the tcbiomass 2022 conference in Denver (April 2022). During the conference, we connected with several American and European National Laboratories and pioneer companies in the sustainable renewable energy field. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Lignocellulosic crop residue and agriculture plastic waste feedstock characterization: In collaboration with the University of Idaho Extension, we collected agricultural mixed waste (AMW) from rural farmers in Idaho. Samples consisted of chaff or bluegrass mixed with twine and net wrap. AMW was homogenized by compounding in a twin-screw extruder and characterized by thermal analysis. Lignocellulosic portions were subjected to ultimate and proximate analysis followed by extraction, FAME analysis, carbohydrate analysis, and lignin content analysis. Plastic portions were characterized separately using proximate, ultimate, degradation frame temperature, and melting point. Activation energy and calorific value were calculated for both portions and the homogeneous mixture. 2. Pyrolysis and Catalytic Pyrolysis of AMW: The homogenized AMW granuleswerethermally and catalytically pyrolyzed (500-600 °C) in our small and large custom tube batch reactor. Optimum large-scale fuel production has been achieved after manycomputations, adjustments, and trialand error up to 65 percent conversion.Zeolite Y facilitated the breakdown of long-chain hydrocarbons into short-chain alkanes and aromatics. The chemical profile of the products was identical to gasoline. 3. Characterization and evaluation of the final liquid fuel product: The wax product of thermal pyrolysis was less suitable as fuel due to the absence of aromatic compounds and the presence of oxygenated compounds. The aromatics profile in catalytic pyrolysis liquid products was chemically and functionally identical to gasoline, making it suitable for use as a "drop-in" gasoline fuel. The catalyst could be recovered and reused. The chemical characteristics of the solid char product were studied by FTIR spectroscopy. Thermal pyrolysis products mainly comprised straight-chain hydrocarbons, and catalytic pyrolysis products contained short-chain hydrocarbons and aromatics. The results showed a high degree of similarity between the chemical profiles of catalytic pyrolysis products and gasoline as we expected. We spent about four months optimizingthe large-scale fuel production and scaling up the process. All three goals of the project have been achieved with the exception of the fuel combustion analysis.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Sotoudehnia F, McDonald AG. Upgrading Mixed Agricultural Plastic and Lignocellulosic Waste to Liquid Fuels by Catalytic Pyrolysis. Catalysts. 2022; 12(11):1381. https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12111381
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Sotoudehnia F, McDonald AG. Upgrading Mixed Agricultural Plastic and Lignocellulosic Waste to Fuels by Catalytic Pyrolysis. Poster presented at: 2022 tcbiomass Conference; April, 2022; Denver, CO.
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Progress 06/15/21 to 06/14/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Our efforts have reached two main groups during this period: 1. Farmerswere reached through our direct work with the University of Idaho Extension. Most Idaho farmersincinerate agricultural plastic waste at the end of the harvesting season. Incineration poses serious environmental concerns, and this project promotes the creation ofvalue-added products by utilizing agricultural wasteand improving waste management practices, whichcan result in regional economic rural development. 2. Industry memberswere approached during an international conferencein which we presented our work and talked aboutthe potentialto scale up and deploy the technology to rural and urban areas to generate energy and other valuable products (e.g., soil amendments), improve status quo of waste management, and mitigate environmental concerns, which would ultimately provide jobs andenhance economic development and viability in the subject industries. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The PI haspresented this researchat the College of Natural Resources Graduate Seminar, which allowed him to connect with students and peers in other disciplines and initiate collaborative research with departments such asMechanical Engineeringand Civil and Environmental Engineering. The PI has also presented this research atthe tcbiomass conference in Denver, CO.During the conference, the PI attended multiple presentation sessions and learned about cutting-edge research and new ideas in the area ofthermochemical conversion and sustainable energy production. In general, this project has enhanced our research capacity in the multi-disciplinary area ofvalorization ofwaste and energy recovery via catalytic pyrolysis andsustainable fuel productionand has given usa deeper understanding of the whole process. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In collaboration with the University of Idaho Extension, we have connected with local farmers and provided information about this project. We have presented the results of this project at the tcbiomass 2022 conferencein Denver (April 2022).During the conference, we connected with several American and European National Laboratories andpioneer companies in the sustainable renewable energy field. We havestarted writing the first draft of a manuscript that we hope to publish it in the prestigious Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis during the next reporting period. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We builtour second custom reactor on a larger scale to be able to produce large amounts of liquid fuel for final analyses and evaluation. Using our small reactor, we have identified the optimal conditions for maximizingliquid product yield.We hope to use this knowledge in ournew reactor to pyrolyze AMW and obtain large amounts of liquid product. We will then evaluate the product's energy content and combustionproperties. Figure 1: Large custom-madepyrolysis reactor
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Lignocellulosic crop residue and agriculture plastic waste feedstock characterization: In collaboration with the University of Idaho Extension, we collectedagricultural mixed waste (AMW) fromrural farmers in Idaho. Samples consisted of chaff or bluegrass mixed withtwine and net wrap. Figure 1: Agricultural Mixed Waste collected from rural Idaho farmers. AMW was homogenized by compounding in a twin-screw extruder andcharacterized by thermal analysis (Figure 2). Lignocellulosic portions weresubjected to ultimate and proximate analysis followed by extraction, FAME analysis, carbohydrate analysis, and lignin content analysis.Plastic portions werecharacterized separately using proximate, ultimate, degradation frame temperature, and melting point. Activation energy and calorific value were calculated for both portions andthe homogeneousmixture. Figure 2: Twin-screw extruderused for the extrusion of AMW (left), and the final productground into granola (right) 2. Pyrolysis and Catalytic Pyrolysis of AMW: The homogenized AMW was thermally and catalytically pyrolyzed (500-600 °C) in our customtube batch reactor.Zeolite Y facilitatedthe breakdown of long-chain hydrocarbons into short-chain alkanes and aromatics. 3. Characterization and evaluation of the final liquid fuel product: The wax product of thermal pyrolysis was less suitable as fuel due to the absence of aromatic compounds and the presence of oxygenated compounds. The profile of aromatics in catalytic pyrolysis liquid products was chemically and functionally identical to gasoline, making it suitable for use as a "drop-in" gasoline fuel. The catalyst could be recovered and reused.The chemical characteristics of the solid char product were studiedby FTIR spectroscopy. Thermal pyrolysis products mainly comprised straight-chain hydrocarbons, and catalytic pyrolysis products comprised short-chain hydrocarbons and aromatics. The results showed a high degree of similarity between the chemical profiles of catalytic pyrolysis products and gasoline as we expected. At this point, we report that wehave fully achieved two of thethree goals of this study. The evaluation of the final liquid fuel product remains to be done as part of our third goal.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Sotoudehnia, F., & McDonald, A. G. (2022, April 1721). Upgrading mixed agricultural plastic and lignocellulosic waste to fuels by catalytic pyrolysis [Poster presentation]. tcbiomass Conference, Denver, CO, United States.
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