Sewage sludge pyrolysis for liquid production: A review

The high output of sewage sludge, which is increasing during recent years, and the limitations of the existing means of disposing sewage sludge highlight the need to find alternative routes to manage this waste. Biomass and residues like sewage sludge are the only renewable energy sources that can provide C and H, thus it is interesting to process them by means of treatments that enable to obtain chemically valuable products like fuels and not only heat and power; pyrolysis can be one of these treatments. The main objective of this review is to provide an account of the state of the art of sewage sludge pyrolysis for liquid production, which is under study during recent years. This process yields around 50 wt% (daf) of liquid. Typically, this liquid is heterogeneous and it usually separates into two or three phases. Some of these organic phases have very high gross heating values, even similar to those of petroleum-based fuels. The only industrial sewage sludge pyrolysis plant operated to date is currently closed due to some technical challenges and problems of economic viability.