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6CCVD Research

Electrochemical oxidation of refractory compounds from hydrothermal carbonization process waters

At a Glance

Section titled ā€œAt a Glanceā€
MetadataDetails
Publication Date2024-02-04
JournalChemosphere
AuthorsTobias Blach, Markus Engelhart
InstitutionsTechnical University of Darmstadt
Citations6

Abstract

Section titled ā€œAbstractā€

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is an emerging technology for treating sewage sludge. However, the resulting HTC process water is heavily contaminated with various carbonaceous and nitrogenous components, some of them being non-biodegradable. To implement HTC as a full-scale treatment alternative for sewage sludge, effective concepts for treating process water are crucial. This study focuses on the electrochemical oxidation (EO) using a boron-doped diamond electrode to treat one HTC process waters with different pretreatments: (i) without pretreatment, (ii) biologically pretreated with chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, (iii) biologically pretreated with nitrification and denitrification. The EO removed COD of all HTC process waters by over 97%, but as COD concentrations decreased, the instantaneous current efficiency (ICE) dropped below 5% and energy consumption increased. The organically bound and refractory nitrogen was completely mineralized and converted to mainly NO<sub>3</sub>-N. After EO of process waters without nitrification/denitrification, nitrogen was present as NO<sub>3</sub>-N with up to 730 mg/L and NH<sub>4</sub>-N with up to 1813 mg/L. Such high ammonium concentrations treatment could be interesting for nitrogen recovery. In addition, the toxicity towards Vibrio fischeri could be reduced to a large extent. The findings suggest that EO after a biological step with COD removal is a viable solution for HTC process water treatment.

Tech Support

Section titled ā€œTech Supportā€

Original Source

Section titled ā€œOriginal Sourceā€

References

Section titled ā€œReferencesā€
  1. 2011 - Boron-doped diamond anodic treatment of landfill leachate: evaluation of operating variables and formation of oxidation by-products [Crossref]
  2. 2014 - Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes: an overview of the applications to actual industrial effluents
  3. 2012 - Electrochemical oxidation of succinic acid in aqueous solutions using boron doped diamond anodes [Crossref]
  4. 2023 - Effect of temperature during the hydrothermal carbonization of sewage sludge on the aerobic treatment of the produced process waters [Crossref]
  5. 2010 - Electrochemical incineration of diclofenac in neutral aqueous medium by anodic oxidation using Pt and boron-doped diamond anodes [Crossref]
  6. 2006 - The chemistry of perchlorate in the environment
  7. 2009 - A comparison between conductive-diamond electrochemical oxidation and other advanced oxidation processes for the treatment of synthetic melanoidins [Crossref]
  8. 2020 - Selection of anodic material for the combined electrochemical-biological treatment of lindane polluted soil washing effluents [Crossref]
  9. 2020 - Biodegradability improvement and toxicity reduction of soil washing effluents polluted with atrazine by means of electrochemical pre-treatment: influence of the anode material [Crossref]
  10. 2006 - Electrochemical treatment of textile dyes and dyehouse effluents [Crossref]

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