Method for quickly converting organic waste into energy

Abstract

A method for quickly converting organic waste into energy, including the following steps of S1, performing anaerobic fermentation on organic waste to convert macromolecular organic matter in the organic waste into soluble small molecular organic matter to obtain fermentation liquid; S2, performing solid-liquid separation on the fermentation liquid to obtain a solid-phase part and a liquid-phase part, respectively; and S3, disposing or reusing the solid-phase part as residues, and enabling the liquid-phase part to enter a flow-catalyzed fuel cell to convert organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy. The present application can quickly and efficiently convert the organic waste into electrical energy.

Claims

1. A method for quickly converting organic waste into energy, comprising the following steps: S1. performing anaerobic fermentation on organic waste containing lipids to convert lipid components in the organic waste into soluble small molecular organic matter to obtain fermentation liquid, wherein the small molecular organic matter comprises short-chain fatty acids and glycerol; S2. performing solid-liquid separation on the fermentation liquid to obtain a solid-phase part and a liquid-phase part, respectively; and S3. disposing or reusing the solid-phase part as residues, and enabling the liquid-phase part to enter a flow-catalyzed fuel cell to convert the small molecular organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy; wherein the flow-catalyzed fuel cell uses a proton exchange membrane to separate an anode and a cathode, ananolyte uses phosphomolybdic acid as catalysts, and air or pure oxygen is used as a cathode oxidant; and after the liquid-phase part enters the flow-catalyzed fuel cell, the flow-catalyzed fuel cell operates at 80-95° C. to convert the small molecular organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the phosphomolybdic acid is dissolved in the anolyte of the flow-catalyzed fuel cell.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein after the process of converting the organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy, ammonium salt is added to the anolyte to form ammonium phosphomolybdate precipitates for phosphomolybdic acid recovery.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the phosphomolybdic acid adheres to an anode electrode of the flow-catalyzed fuel cell, and after the process of converting the organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy, remaining water directly flows out of the flow-catalyzed fuel cell.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the phosphomolybdic acid is combined with insoluble particles, and after the process of converting the organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy, the phosphomolybdic acid is recovered by a filtration, centrifugation or magnetic field separation method; and the insoluble particles comprise carbon microspheres and/or magnetic particles.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step S1 is carried out in a fermentation reactor.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the fermentation type is butyric acid fermentation, propionic acid fermentation, ethanol fermentation, lactic acid fermentation or alkaline fermentation.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein during solid-liquid separation in step S2, a filtration or centrifugation process is used.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(1) The present application is further described below with reference to the detailed description.

(2) A specific implementation of the present application provides a method for quickly converting organic waste into energy, including the following steps S1, S2, and S3.

(3) Step S1. Anaerobic fermentation is performed on organic waste to convert macromolecular organic matter in the organic waste into soluble small molecular organic matter to obtain fermentation liquid. The anaerobic fermentation may be carried out in a fermentation reactor. The fermentation type may be, but is not limited to, butyric acid fermentation, propionic acid fermentation, ethanol fermentation, lactic acid fermentation or alkaline fermentation. In a preferred embodiment, the organic waste is organic waste containing lipids, and after the anaerobic fermentation, the lipid components in the organic waste are decomposed into small molecular organic matter such as short-chain fatty acids and glycerol.

(4) Step S2. Solid-liquid separation is performed on the fermentation liquid to obtain a solid-phase part and a liquid-phase part, respectively. The solid-liquid separation in the step may use a filtration or centrifugation process.

(5) Step S3. The solid-phase part is disposed or reused as residues, and the liquid-phase part enters a flow-catalyzed fuel cell to convert organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy.

(6) In a preferred embodiment, the flow-catalyzed fuel cell used in the present application uses a proton exchange membrane to separate an anode and a cathode, ananolyte uses phosphomolybdic acid H.sub.3PMo.sub.12O.sub.40 as a catalyst, and the cathode uses air or pure oxygen as an oxidant. After the liquid-phase part enters the flow-catalyzed fuel cell, the flow-catalyzed fuel cell operates at 80-95° C. to directly convert the organic matter in the liquid-phase part in the fermentation liquid into electrical energy. The phosphomolybdic acid as the anode catalyst may be dissolved in the anolyte of the flow-catalyzed fuel cell, or may be insoluble but adhere to the anode electrode, or may be combined with insoluble particles such as carbon microspheres and/or magnetic particles.

(7) In the embodiment in which phosphomolybdic acid is dissolved in the anolyte of the flow-catalyzed fuel cell, after the process of converting organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy, ammonium salt may be added to the anolyte to form ammonium phosphomolybdate precipitates for phosphomolybdic acid recovery. In the embodiment in which phosphomolybdic acid adheres to the anode electrode, after the process of converting organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy, remaining water directly flows out of the flow-catalyzed fuel cell. In the embodiment in which phosphomolybdic acid is combined with the insoluble particles, after the process of converting organic matter in the liquid-phase part into electrical energy, the phosphomolybdic acid is recovered by a filtration, centrifugation or magnetic field separation process.

(8) Taking certain kitchen waste as an example, the aforementioned method of the present application is used for quick energy conversion treatment. First, the kitchen waste was placed in a fermentation reactor and a residence time was set to be 4 days. The fermentation type was controlled to be butyric acid fermentation by alkali liquor. When the time was up, an obtained fermentation liquid was discharged from the fermentation reactor and then centrifuged. Total organic carbon (TOC) in a supernatant (liquid-phase part) accounted for 80% of the total TOC of the kitchen waste. The supernatant entered a flow-catalyzed fuel cell. After the concentration was adjusted, the initial TOC was 4.20 g/L. After 24 h treatment, the TOC was reduced to 1.30 g/L, and the conversion rate was about 70%. The whole process took 5 days, an organic matter conversion rate was 56% (based on TOC), and a system energy efficiency (output electrical energy/input energy) was 45.72%.

(9) The foregoing content further describes the present application in detail with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, and the specification should not be construed as a limitation on the specific embodiments of the present application. A person skilled in the art, to which the present application belong, may make some equivalent replacements or obvious variations without departing from the principle of the present application, performance or functions of the replacements or variations are the same as that in the present application, and the replacements or variations should fall within the protection scope of the present application.

(10) Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.