Recently, Korea’s municipal wastewater treatment plants generated amount of wastewater sludge per day. However, ocean dumping of sewage sludge has been prohibited since 2012 by the London dumping convention and protocol and thus removal or treatment of wastewater sludge from field sites is an important issue on the ground site. The hydrothermal carbonization is one of attractive thermo-chemical method to upgrade sewage sludge to produce solid fuel with benefit method from the use of no chemical catalytic. Hydrothermal carbonization improved that the upgrading fuel properties and increased materials and energy recovery ,which is conducted at temperatures ranging from 200 to 350°C with a reaction time of 30 min. Hydrothermal carbonization increased the heating value though the increase of the carbon and fixed carbon content of solid fuel due to dehydration and decarboxylation reaction. Therefore, after the hydrothermal carbonization, the H/C and O/C ratios decreased because of the chemical conversion. Energy retention efficiency suggest that the optimum temperature of hydrothermal carbonization to produce more energy-rich solid fuel is approximately 200°C.

In this study, hydrothermal carbonization is used to recover energy from sludge. This hydrothermal carbonization is a feasible sustainable energy conversion technology to produce biofuel for renewable energy. The experiments were conducted at 170oC up to 220oC for a 30-min holding period to determine the optimum conditions for hydrothermal carbonization in a lab-scale reactor to apply to a scale-up reactor (1 ton/day). The biochars from sludge were assessed in terms of dewaterability characteristics and fuel properties. The results showed that the optimum temperature of labscale hydrothermal carbonization was 190oC. The 1 ton/day hydrothermal carbonization pilot plant operated at 190oC. The biochar had higher energy content but the char yield sharply decreased. Therefore, an energy of about 49% could effectively be converted from sludge biomass. This sludge from municipal wastewater treatment is a potential energy resource because sludge is composed of organic substances.

In recent years, waste-to-energy conversion using municipal solid waste (MSW) has been gaining attention in municipalities. Such conversion can reduce the dependency of non-renewable energy such as fossil fuels by generating solid refuse fuel (SRF) and diverting landfilling of the waste, although there is debate over the efficiency and economic aspect of the practice. With a growing interest in the conversion, D city is trying to adopt all possible measures towards achieving a material-cycle society by constructing a waste-to-energy town by 2018. The waste-to-energy town will be comprised of energy recovery facilities such as a mechanical treatment facility for fluff-type SRF with a power generation plant, and anaerobic digestion of food waste for biogas recovery. In this paper, we focus on estimating the energy recovery potentials and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction of MSW by waste-to-energy conversion under three different scenarios. The data required for this study were obtained from available national statistics and reports, a literature review, and interviews with local authorities and industry experts. The lower heating value was calculated using the modified Dulong equation. Based on the results of this study, the energy recovery potential of MSW was calculated to be approximately 14,201-51,122 TOE/y, 12,426-44,732 TOE/y, and 8,520-30,673 TOE/y for Scenarios 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The reduction of GHG by such conversion was estimated to range from 10,074-36,938 tonCO2eq/y, depending on scenario. This study would help determine the production rate of fluff-type SRF to be converted into a form of energy. In addition, this study would aid waste management decision-makers to clarify the effectiveness of recycling of MSW and their corresponding energy recovery potentials, as well as to understand GHG reduction by the conversion.