Delocalized organic pollutant destruction through a self-sustaining supercritical water oxidation process

The process of SCWO for dilute waste water (no more than 5 wt.%) is modelled through the ASPEN Plus© process simulator. Studies were made to search for energetic self-sufficiency conditions using various technologies for power production from the heat of reaction, like supercritical water expansion in a turbine, use of a closed Brayton cycle (CBC) and use of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC). The results obtained showed that the process is energetically self-sufficient using either a small supercritical turbine, or an ORC. In less restrictive conditions regarding the component efficiencies, the CBC, in theory, also leads to self-sufficiency, but from the analysis, it appears that this solution is less realistic.