Development of low-cost materials from compost obtained in mechanical biological treatment plants for municipal solid waste: application as catalysts in H2O2 decomposition Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • The organic waste, after separation from rejected and recyclable waste, is treated by anaerobic digestion and composting, in order to obtain biogas and a compost that can be used in agriculture. However, the current waste management legislation in Europe and expected developments regarding the coming directives on the application of the “End-of-waste” criteria, are leading to barriers on the use of fertilizers resulting from waste [1]. Within this context, the current work proposes an alternative strategy to the valorisation of compost, through the production of highvalue materials to be used in catalytic processes. To this aim, a compost obtained from a mechanical biological treatment plant for municipal solid waste was considered. The material was first washed (1 litter of water per 100 g of compost), in order to remove the soluble compounds and suspend solids. Then, two different materials were prepared by carbonization at 400 (C-400) and 800 ºC (C-800). In addition, following the procedure previously described [2], two materials were prepared with H2SO4 before and after the carbonization at 800 ºC (C-S-800 and C-800-S, respectively). Finally, the materials were sieved, in order to obtain samples in three different particle size ranges: 0-106 μm (LSp), 106-250 μm (MSp) and higher than 250 μm (HSp). All materials were assessed in H2O2 decomposition (Fig.1). As can be observed, conversions of H2O2 higher than 80 % at 24 h are obtained with the most of samples (much higher than the conversion obtained without material, ca. 30 %). In addition, the increase of the carbonization temperature results in materials with a catalytic activity greatly increased. On the opposite, the modification with H2SO4 shows a negative effect, likely due to an increase of acidity [3].
  • This work is a result of project VALORCOMP, funded by FEDER through Programme INTERREG V A Spain - Portugal (POCTEP) 2014–2020 and “AIProcMat@N2020 - Advanced Industrial Processes and Materials for a Sustainable Northern Region of Portugal 2020”, with the reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000006, supported by NORTE 2020, under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through FEDER and of Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006984 – Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM funded by FEDER through COMPETE2020 - POCI – and by national funds through FCT. A.M.T. Silva acknowledges the FCT Investigator Programme (IF/01501/2013), with financing from the European Social Fund and the Human Potential Operational Programme

publication date

  • January 1, 2017