Investigation on hydrochar and macromolecules recovery opportunities from food waste after hydrothermal carbonization

In this paper, the performance of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) was investigated on real food waste (FW) to improve resource recovery opportunities. The HTC was performed in a high pressure batch reactor (without addition of water) at desired temperatures for different durations to study the properties of solid hydrochar (HC) and process water (PW) produced during the process. The reaction temperature and run time of 200 °C and 1 h, respectively were found suitable to produce the HC (high heating value = ~30 MJ/kg) having properties similar to that of the peat/lignite coal. Moreover, durable pellets could also be prepared from HC without addition of binder. The kinetic constants for HC combustion were also predicted using non-isothermal model-free approach for the data obtained from thermo-gravimetric analysis. In the PW samples recovered after HTC, several value-added compounds like 2,5-hydroxymethyl furfural, humic-like substances (HLS), proteins, carbohydrates and volatile fatty acids could be detected in appreciable quantities. However, longer reaction resulted in further degradation of above macromolecules into VFAs. Based on the observations, a pathway for FW degradation during HTC process is proposed. Moreover, the HLS and proteins mixture recovered from the PW sample exhibited no adverse impact on seed growth. The present study demonstrates that the HTC can be a potential treatment method for FW to recover a variety of useful materials. Further studies should focus on developing cost-effective methods for the recovery of various macromolecules from PW.