Supercritical oxidation of waste
AssigneeBeyond the Dome Inc.
InventorsMatthew Brandon Stroud, Sophie Mancuso
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Abstract
Provided herein are methods, systems, and apparatuses for energy-efficient supercritical water oxidation of waste. The supercritical water oxidation processes and systems described herein may incorporate one or more of the following features: compression of large amounts of oxidant for plant-scale operations in an energy-efficient manner; the use of air as an oxidant; using reactor effluent to drive a turbine or other gas expander for energy recovery; and recovery of pressure and heat of reactor effluent. In some embodiments, the systems and methods are energy-neutral or energy-positive.
Claims4
A system for supercritical water oxidation of waste, comprising:
- a supercritical reactor configured to generate waste solids and a supercritical reactor effluent from a supercritical waste feed stream;
- a recovery heat exchanger in communication with the supercritical reactor and configured to cool the supercritical reactor effluent to form a pressurized mixed phase reactor effluent, the pressurized mixed phase reactor effluent comprising a pressurized liquid phase reactor effluent and a pressurized gas phase reactor effluent;
- and
- a pressure exchanger configured to depressurize the pressurized liquid phase reactor effluent and pressurize an aqueous waste feed stream.
A method comprising:
- generating waste solids and a supercritical reactor effluent from a supercritical waste feed stream;
- cooling the supercritical reactor effluent to form a pressurized mixed phase reactor effluent, the pressurized mixed phase reactor effluent comprising a pressurized liquid phase reactor effluent and a pressurized gas phase reactor effluent;
- and
- exchanging pressure between the pressurized liquid phase reactor effluent and an aqueous waste feed stream to pressurize the aqueous waste feed stream.
A method comprising:
- generating a supercritical aqueous fluid comprising organic waste from aqueous feed stream at ambient temperature and pressure;
- compressing an oxidant from ambient pressure to a pressure near or at the pressure of the supercritical aqueous fluid;
- inletting the supercritical aqueous fluid and the compressed oxidant to a supercritical reactor;
- oxidizing the organic waste in the supercritical aqueous fluid;
- and
- outputting solids, H2O, and CO2 from the reactor, wherein the method is energy-neutral or energy-positive.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.