Production of high quality fuels using the enhanced Enersludge™ process

The Enersludge™ process converts sewage sludge, biomass and other carbonaceous materials to re-usable fuels. Currently the low grade fuels namely char, reaction water and non-condensed gas are used to drive the process with the oil being classified as surplus fuel. Consequently oil quality is of paramount importance with regard to marketability of the Enersludge™ process. The new process comprises a single reactor followed by a catalyst cartridge to refine oil vapours. Oil quality can be controlled by type of catalyst, temperature and WHSV. Oil viscosity was used as a global oil quality indicator to benchmark the enhanced Enersludge™ process against its reactor predecessors. Oil viscosities as low as 3 cSt can be achieved which is equivalent to a tenfold reductioncompared to previous reactor designs. At the same time energy recovery in the oil has only dropped slightly.