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Thermochemical conversion of biomass waste is a high potential option for increasing usage of renewable energy sources and transferring wastes into the circular economy. This work focuses on the evaluation of the energetic and adsorption properties of solid residue (char) of the gasification process. Gasification experiments of biomass wastes (wheat straw, hay and pine sawdust) were carried out in a vertical fixed bed reactor, under a CO2 atmosphere and at various temperatures (800, 900 and 1000 degrees C). The analysis of the energy properties of the obtained chars included elemental and thermogravimetric (TGA) analysis. TGA results indicated that the chars have properties similar to those of coal; subjected data were used to calculate key combustion parameters. As part of the analysis of adsorption properties, BET, SEM, FTIR and dynamic methanol vapor sorption tests were conducted. The specific surface area has risen from 0.42-1.91 m2/g (biomass) to 419-891 m2/g (char). FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the influence of gasification on the decomposition of characteristic chemical compounds for biomass. Methanol sorption has revealed for the 900 degrees C chars of pine sawdust the highest sorption capacity and its mass change was 24.15% at P/P0 = 90%. Selected chars might be an appropriate material for volatile organic compounds sorption.

Currently, the reclamation and reuse of water have not reached their full potential, although more energy is needed to obtain and transport freshwater and this solution has a more serious environmental impact. Agricultural irrigation is, by far, the largest application of reclaimed water worldwide, so the proposed concept may result in the production of water that can be used, among others, for crop irrigation. This paper describes a novel installation for the recovery of the agricultural water from the digestate, along with the results of initial experiments. Currently, water is wasted, due to evaporation, in anaerobic digestion plants, as the effluent from dewatering of the digestate is discharged into lagoons. Moreover, water that stays within the interstitial space of the digestate is lost in a similar fashion. With increasing scarcity of water in rural areas, such waste should not be neglected. The study indicates that hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) enhances mechanical dewatering of the agricultural digestate and approximately 900 L of water can be recovered from one ton. Dewatered hydrochars had a lower heating value of almost 10 MJ/kg, indicating the possibility of using it as a fuel for the process. The aim of this Design Innovation Paper is to outline the newly developed concept of an installation that could enable recovery of water from, so far, the neglected resource-i.e., digestate from anaerobic digestion plants., QC 20200818