PYROCO technology helps turn organic waste into biochar, useful in the energy industry and completely environmentally friendly.
Waste flows from households and agriculture are often rich in carbon compounds. These substances can be trapped when biosolids are separated from wastewater and sent to landfills. Here, they are processed by microorganisms, or burned, but both forms of processing release carbon into the atmosphere.
Therefore, recently researchers at RMIT University in Australia perfected new technology, allowing the conversion of organic waste into useful resources.
This technology, commercially known as PYROCO, uses high temperatures in the absence of oxygen to convert carbon-rich waste (vegetable plant residues, wood chips, excess fertilizers, agricultural organic waste, etc.) industry) into a product called biochar, which can have practical applications in many different things.
In this technique, biosolids are processed at high temperatures, removing all pathogens, Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), as well as microparticles harmful to humans and the environment, to create biochar has carbon locked in a stable form that cannot escape into the atmosphere.
Biochar is useful in making carbon electrodes for batteries and other energy storage devices, or using it to purify water.
Kalpit Shah, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at RMIT University in Australia said: “The trials we have just completed aim to scale up the innovative PYROCO pyrolysis technology. The research team is moving towards commercializing this approach, hoping that it will provide an innovative, optimal solution for biosolid waste treatment.”