How much water can wood cell walls hold? A triangulation approach to determine the maximum cell wall moisture content.

Wood is a porous, hygroscopic material with engineering properties that depend significantly on the amount of water (moisture) in the material. Water in wood can be present in both cell walls and the porous void-structure of the material, but it is only water in cell walls that affects the engineering properties. An important characteristic of wood is therefore the capacity for water of its solid cell walls, i.e. the maximum cell wall moisture content. However, this quantity is not straight-forward to determine experimentally, and the measured value may depend on the experimental technique used. In this study, we used a triangulation approach to determine the maximum cell wall moisture content by using three experimental techniques based on different measurement principles: low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LFNMR) relaxometry, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the solute exclusion technique (SET). The LFNMR data were furthermore analysed by two varieties of exponential decay analysis. These techniques were used to determine the maximum cell wall moisture contents of nine different wood species, covering a wide range of densities. The results from statistical analysis showed that LFNMR yielded lower cell wall moisture contents than DSC and SET, which were fairly similar. Both of the latter methods include factors that could either under-estimate or over-estimate the measured cell wall moisture content. Because of this and the fact that the DSC and SET methods are based on different measurement principles, it is likely that they provide realistic values of the cell wall moisture content in the water-saturated state.

Effects of post anaerobic digestion thermal hydrolysis on dewaterability and moisture distribution in digestates.

Organic waste fractions such as sewage sludge, food waste and manure can be stabilized by anaerobic digestion (AD) to produce renewable energy in the form of biogas. Following AD, the digested solid fraction (digestate) is usually dewatered to reduce the volume before transportation. Post-AD treatments such as the Post-AD thermal hydrolysis process (Post-AD THP) have been developed to improve the dewatering, but the mode of action is not well understood. In this study, samples from 32 commercial full-scale plants were used to assess the impact of Post-AD THP on a broad range of raw materials. Maximum dewatered cake solids after Post-AD THP was predicted by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Post-AD THP changed the moisture distribution of the samples by increasing the free water fraction. A consistent improvement in predicted dewatered cake solids was achieved across the 32 samples tested, on average increasing the dry solids concentration by 87%. A full-scale trial showed that dewatering Post-AD THP digestate at 80 °C improved dewatered cake solids above the predictions by TGA at 35 °C. In conclusion, dewatered cake solids were significantly improved by Post-AD THP, reducing the volume of dewatered cake for disposal.

CNash - A novel parameter predicting cake solids of dewatered digestates.

Efficient digestate dewatering is crucial to reduce the volume and transportation cost of solid residues from anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. Large variations in dewatered cake solids have been reported and predictive models are therefore important in design and operation of such plants. However, current predictive models lack validation across several digestion substrates, pre-treatments and full-scale plants. In this study, we showed that thermogravimetric analysis is a reliable prediction model for dewatered cake solids using digestates from 15 commercial full-scale plants. The tested digestates originated from different substrates, with and without the pre-AD thermal hydrolysis process (THP). Moreover, a novel combined physicochemical parameter (C/N•ash) characterizing different digestate blends was identified by multiplying the C/N ratio with ash content of the dried solids. Using samples from 22 full-scale wastewater, food waste and co-waste plants, a linear relationship was found between C/N•ash and predicted cake solids for digestates with and without pre-AD THP. Pre-AD THP improved predicted cake solids by increasing the amount of free water. However, solids characteristics like C/N ratio and ash content had a more profound influence on the predicted cake solids than pre-AD THP and type of dewatering device. Finally, C/N•ash was shown to have a linear relationship to cake solids and reported polymer dose from eight full-scale pre-AD THP plants. In conclusion, we identified the novel parameter C/N•ash which can be used to predict dewatered cake solids regardless of dewatering device and sludge origin.