Power-to-chemicals: sustainable liquefaction of food waste with plasma-electrolysis

doi:10.1007/s11705-022-2255-y

Front. Chem. Sci. Eng.

2023, Vol. 17

Issue (5) : 594-605 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2255-y

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Power-to-chemicals: sustainable liquefaction of food waste with plasma-electrolysis

Wenquan Xie¹, Xianhui Zhang¹(

), Dengke Xi¹, Rusen Zhou², Size Yang¹, Patrick Cullen², Renwu Zhou^2,³(

)

¹. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Plasma and Magnetic Resonance, Fujian Engineering Research Center for EDA, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Wave Science and Detection Technology, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Multiphysics Electronic Information, Institute of Electromagnetics and Acoustics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
². School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia
³. State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Centre for Plasma Biomedicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

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Abstract

The increasing amount of food waste from various industrial, agricultural, and household sources is an environmental burden if managed inappropriately. Numerous waste management approaches have been developed for the disposal of food waste, but still suffer from either high cost, production of toxic by-products, or secondary environmental pollutions. Herein, we report a new and sustainable plasma electrolysis biorefinery route for the rapid and efficient liquefaction of food waste. During the plasma electrolysis process, only the solvent is added to liquefy the waste, and anions in the waste can contribute to catalyzing the biowaste conversion. While liquefying the waste, the highly reactive species produced in the plasma electrolysis process can efficiently reduce the content of O, N, and Cl in the liquefied products and oxidize most of the metals into solid residues. Especially, the removal rate of Na and K elements was greater than 81%, which is significantly higher than using the traditional oil bath liquefaction, resulting in a relatively high-quality biocrude oil with a high heating value of 25.86 MJ·kg^–1. Overall, this proposed strategy may provide a new sustainable and eco-friendly avenue for the power-to-chemicals valorization of food waste under benign conditions.

Keywords plasma electrolysis food waste liquefaction resource recovery

Corresponding Author(s): Xianhui Zhang,Renwu Zhou

About author:

*These authors equally shared correspondence to this manuscript.

Just Accepted Date: 15 September 2022 Online First Date: 17 January 2023 Issue Date: 28 April 2023

Cite this article:

Wenquan Xie,Xianhui Zhang,Dengke Xi, et al. Power-to-chemicals: sustainable liquefaction of food waste with plasma-electrolysis[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2023, 17(5): 594-605.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/10.1007/s11705-022-2255-y
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/Y2023/V17/I5/594

Scheme1 Illustration of food waste management process by the PE. Green and sustainable solvents can be potentially produced from renewable biomass sources at large scales. This study reports a catalyst-free approach based on the electricity-driven in-liquid plasma discharges to convert the biomass and recycle resources from food wastes, nearing the ultimate carbon-neutral processes.

Tab.1 Composition of leftovers

Fig.1 The CV and the voltage and current with time curves of PE. (a) The CV (voltage vs. current curve); (b) voltage and current vs. time in Phase 1; (c) voltage and current vs. time in Phase 2.

Fig.2 Influence of different amounts of water on (a) liquid yield and (b) temperature (polyethylene glycol (PEG 200)/glycerol: 3/1, liquid–solid ratio: 7/1, no catalyst added).

Fig.3 The effect of time on (a) the liquid yield and (b) temperature with different pH conditions (PEG 200/glycerol: 3/1 (volume ratio); liquid–solid ratio: 7/1 (mass ratio without water); pH control: 1.25% H₂SO₄, 1.25% NaOH (mass ratio)).

Fig.4 The effect of solution pH on liquid yield (PEG 200/glycerol: 3/1 (volume ratio), liquid–solid ratio: 7/1 (mass ratio without water); solution pH adjusted by the addition of H₂SO₄ and NaOH; treatment time: 6 min (acidic condition), 16 min (alkaline condition).

Tab.2 The influence of liquid–solid ratios on the liquefaction^a)

Tab.3 Relative content of the elements in the leftovers and residues

Fig.5 Catalytic effect of anions under different pH conditions. (a) acidic; (b) neutral; (c) alkaline conditions.

Fig.6 Possible mechanisms of food waste (lignin, cellulose, protein and lipid) conversion in the PE process.

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