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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Florence, South Carolina » Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #403849
Research Project: Innovative Manure Treatment Technologies and Enhanced Soil Health for Agricultural Systems of the Southeastern Coastal Plain

Location: Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research

Title: Data from: Comparative studies on water- and vapor-based hydrothermal carbonization: process analysis

Author
item Ro, Kyoung
item LIBRA, JUDY - Leibniz Institute
item ALVAREZ-MURILLO, ANDRES - University Of Extremadura

Submitted to: Dryad Digital Repository
Publication Type: Database / Dataset
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/4/2023
Publication Date: 5/20/2024
Citation: Ro, K.S., Libra, J.A., Alvarez-Murillo, A. 2024. Data from: Comparative studies on water- and vapor-based hydrothermal carbonization: process analysis. Dryad Digital Repository. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xpnvx0kpf.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xpnvx0kpf

Interpretive Summary: .

Technical Abstract: This is digital research data corresponding to a published manuscript,Comparative studies on water-and vapor-based hydrothermal carbonization: Process analysis, in Energies, Vol. 13(21), p.5733. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) reactor systems used to convert wet organic wastes into value-added hydrochar are generally classified in the literature as liquid water-based (HTC) or vapor-based (VTC). However, the distinction between the two is often ambiguous. In this paper, we present a methodological approach to analyze process conditions for hydrothermal systems. First, we theoretically developed models for predicting reactor pressure, volume fraction of liquid water and water distribution between phases as a function of temperature. The reactor pressure model predicted the measured pressure reasonably well. We also demonstrated the importance of predicting the condition at which the reactor system enters the subcooled compression liquid region to avoid the danger of explosion. To help understand water–feedstock interactions, we defined a new solid content parameter %S(T) based on the liquid water in physical contact with feedstock, which changes with temperature due to changes in the water distribution. Using these models, we then compared the process conditions of seven different HTC/VTC cases reported in the literature. This study illustrates that a large range of conditions need to be considered before applying the label VTC or HTC. These tools can help in designing experiments to compare systems and understand results in future HTC research.