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Conversion of Organic Waste to Value-added Products
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- Author / Creator
- Akbari, Maryam
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Canada is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to mitigate the effects of global warming. A major source of GHG emissions is coal-based power generation. Replacing (fossil) coal with biomass-based feedstocks for the generation of electricity could help reduce these emissions. Another source of GHG emissions is landfills, as the most common method for disposing waste currently is landfilling. Landfilling organic wastes is being phased out in many jurisdictions because many associated problems.
The main focus of this research is to assess the utilization pathways of different organic wastes and by-products available for the production of value-added products. Specifically the focus is on the use of black liquor (a by-product of the forest industry), yard waste, agricultural waste, manure, and algae. Several thermo-chemical conversion processes – wet and dry torrefaction, gasification, and combustion – are evaluated. Process models have been developed for conversion pathways. These process models have been further used for to develop techno-economic models for estimating the production cost of the value-added products. Finally, net energy ratio and life cycle GHG emissions are estimated.
It was found that the production costs of ammonia from black liquor and of bio-coal from yard waste, woodchips, wheat straw, grape pomace, and manure can compete with the market price of fossil-based ammonia and coal in Alberta. The information developed in this study can be used for investment decision making and policy formulation. -
- Subjects / Keywords
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- organic waste
- ammonia
- life cycle emissions
- coal replacement
- biochar
- hydrochar
- internal rate of return
- algae
- grape pomace
- net energy ratio
- yard waste
- hydrothermal carbonization
- electricty generation
- cost of production (COP)
- lignin
- black liquor
- dry torrefaction
- wood chips
- energy analysis
- value-added products
- scale factor
- manure
- wet torrefaction
- gasification
- biocoal
- techno-economic
- wheat straw
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2019
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
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- License
- Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.