Technology to turn waste water into biological crude oil

US scientists use hydrothermal liquefaction technology with high temperature and pressure to turn waste water into bio-crude in minutes.

Future wastewater treatment plants can directly turn ordinary waste water into biocrude thanks to research by the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), according to Science Daily.

Scientists mimic Earth's geological conditions, using high temperatures and pressures to produce bio-crude from wastewater after just a few minutes, instead of losing millions of years as in nature. After that, crude oil is purified by conventional refining operations. Research results are published on PNNL's website on November 2.

Wastewater , or more specifically, sludge , is often considered a bad ingredient to produce biofuels because it is too wet. The research team at PNNL applied hydrothermal liquefaction technology (HTL) to eliminate the drying process in most technologies that convert wastewater into current bio-crude oil, reducing production costs and non-consumption energy consuming.

Biological crude oil is produced from sludge in wastewater.(Photo: Science Daily).

HTL technology transforms the organic matter in wastewater into simple chemical compounds. Scientists increased the pressure of a mixture of input materials to 204 atm, 100 times the pressure in a car tire. The pressurized sludge then enters the reactor system operating at about 349 ° C. High temperature and pressure break waste sludge into many different components, including bio-crude oil and an aqueous solution.

"Urban sludge contains a lot of carbon as well as fat. Fat facilitates the conversion of other materials in waste water like toilet paper takes place smoothly, helping the sludge move through the reactor in a way. easy to produce and produce high quality bio-crude oil: When refined, bio-crude oil will become gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, " Corinne Drennan, bioenergy technology researcher Study at PNNL, said.

HTL technology can also produce bio-crude oil from wet organic materials, such as agricultural waste."We have researched and perfected hydrothermal conversion technology over the past six years to create a continuous and scalable process, allowing the use of wet waste like sludge," Drennan said.

PNNL grants HTL technology license to Genifuel Group based in Utah. Genifuel is planning to partner with Metro Vancouver, Canada to build a wastewater treatment plant based on the first HTL technology in North America, with an estimated project cost of US $ 6 - 6.7 million. .