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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #402794
Research Project: Improving the Production and Processing of Western and Long-Staple Cotton and Companion Crops to Enhance Quality, Value, and Sustainability

Location: Cotton Ginning Research

Title: Mitigating municipal solid waste fouling in biofuel conversion via screw surface modifications

Author
item HE, XIN - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
item DARSELL, JENS - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
item Tumuluru, Jaya Shankar
item WANG, WENBO - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
item MEYER, HARRY - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
item KEISER, JAMES - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
item ROHATGI, AASHISH - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
item HOWE, DANIEL - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
item QU, JUN - Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Submitted to: Biomass and Bioenergy
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/5/2024
Publication Date: 8/13/2024
Citation: He, X., Darsell, J., Tumuluru, J., Wang, W., Meyer, H.M., Keiser, J., Rohatgi, A., Howe, D.T., Qu, J. 2024. Mitigating municipal solid waste fouling in biofuel conversion via screw surface modifications. Biomass and Bioenergy. 188. Article 107337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2024.107337.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2024.107337

Interpretive Summary: Municipal solid waste (MSW) has high carbon content and can be a good feedstock for producing biofuel. But the challenge with using MSW for biofuels is the corrosion and breakdown of machinery components caused by the high temperatures of the biofuels production process, known as thermal decomposition. In this study, components of a feeder used to process MSW were treated with three different coatings to reduce the thermal decomposition. The results indicated that all the three coatings reduced the thermal decomposition and helped maintain the smoothness of the feeder surfaces during the biofuels production testing. Reducing the problem of thermal decomposition of machinery components during biofuels production may help reduce production costs and downtime.

Technical Abstract: Municipal solid waste (MSW)’s 40–60% carbon content makes it a feedstock for biofuel production via pyrolysis. One challenge in the conversion process is MSW fouling due to thermal decomposition. The accumulated deposit on the injection screw often leads to plugging and constriction. This study examined the morphology and composition of the MSW fouling deposit and conducted a thermal simulation to understand the temperature gradience of the injection screw. Surface modifications including smoothening and anti-adhesion coating were proposed for the injection screw to address the deposit problem. For evaluating the candidate mitigations, a bench-scale fouling test was developed with the gas environment, temperature, and sliding speed relevant to the contact interface between the MSW particles and the screw. Results suggested that a smoother screw surface could reduce the grip and a non-metallic coating with a lower surface energy could decrease adhesion, consequently leading to less fouling. Specifically, reducing the roughness from 2 to 0.6 and then to 0.2 µm proportionally decreased the amount of deposit, and the diamond-like-carbon, CrN, and NiCr–CrC composite coatings effectively hindered the fouling process. This study provides fundamental insights into the MSW fouling and proof-of-concept of potential mitigations through the screw surface modification.