Waste Management 78 (2018) 217–226

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Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

High temperature pyrolysis of sewage sludge as a sustainable process for

energy recovery
C. Karaca a, S. Sözen a,b,⇑, D. Orhon a,c, H. Okutan d
a
ENVIS Energy and Environmental Systems R&D Ltd, ITU Arı Teknokent, Arı-1 Building No. 16, 34469 Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey
b
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering Department, Istanbul Technical University, 34469 Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey
c
Civil Engineering Department, Near East University, Nicosia, North Cyprus
d
Faculty of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Chemical Engineering Processing Department, Istanbul Technical University, 34469 Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study explored the potential of high temperature pyrolysis for energy recovery from domestic sew-
Received 8 December 2017 age. It mainly defines optimum operating conditions to maximize syngas generation. A pyrolysis unit was
Revised 14 May 2018 operated in batch mode, at temperatures of 450, 600 and 850 °C, rotation speeds of 10, 40 and 60 Hz. The
Accepted 18 May 2018
sludge had 6% moisture content; it contained 65% organic matter and involved a low calorific value of
Available online 7 June 2018
13.535 kJ/kg dry matter. Pyrolysis at 850 °C and high rotation speed of 60 Hz yielded the highest conver-
sion of sludge to syngas, with an average of 59% of the organic matter as syngas, 29% as tar and 12% as
Keywords:
biochar. Pyrolysis enabled 74% of the energy recovery as syngas and tar. Continuous full-scale pyrolysis
Sewage sludge
High rate pyrolysis
systems would further increase the syngas by recovering condensable gaseous products and/or recycling
Syngas tar back into the pyrolysis unit. A unified approach for energy recovery management should equally con-
Thermal conversion sider what fraction of the energy contained in the wastewater was consumed and wasted before gener-
Energy recovery ating the sludge. Therefore, the adopted management scheme should also cover all design and operation
parameters of the treatment plant, because this is how the energy is best conserved even before the
sludge is generated.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent years, there has been a major shift in research efforts
towards sustainable sludge management. The driving force of this
shift was the ever-increasing cost of sludge disposal, accounting for
a major fraction of the total cost of wastewater treatment (Wei
et al., 2003). Therefore, the traditional approach primarily focused
on minimizing sludge generation: a number of physical and chem-
ical methods have been suggested to reduce the sludge generation
potential of conventional treatment processes (Odegaard, 2004).
Earlier studies attempted reducing sludge production by operating
biological treatment plants at high sludge retention times as
extended aeration systems; this mode decreased the amount of
sludge but required excessive aeration (Orhon, 2015). Recently,
new activated sludge modifications, such as the OSA process, have
been developed to provide substantial reductions in sludge pro-
duction (Novak et al., 2007; Chon et al., 2011; Yagci et al., 2015).
Sludge management was also affected by the growing concern
⇑ Corresponding author at: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineer-
ing Department, Istanbul Technical University, 34469 Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey.
E-mail address: sozens@itu.edu.tr (S. Sözen).
for low technology disposal and reuse practice. While landfilling
is still implemented for the major portion of municipal sludge in
EU countries, related regulations aim to minimize landfilling (EC,
1999); they now include constraints that may totally prohibit land-
fill applications rather than trying to reduce its adverse effects on
the environment (Sözen et al., 2015). Similarly, reuse in agriculture
is also advocated as a beneficial option for municipal sludge and
practiced to a limited extent (Lederer and Rechberger, 2010). How-
ever, this is now estimated to be a much more sensitive disposal
route as compared to landfilling, due to potential health risks
(Horn et al., 2003; Hospido et al., 2010).
Increasing concerns and stringent limitations on traditional
sludge disposal practice diverted the major interest towards the
energy content of waste material, regarding sludge as an energy
resource. The possibility of recovering this energy also affected
the conventional biological treatment, which tends to minimize
generated excess sludge at the expense of additional energy for
stabilization. The energy recovery concept modified the biological
treatment practice towards high rate systems enabling to harvest
the maximum possible level of sludge for energy recovery. Studies
have shown that a membrane bioreactor system operated at extre-
mely low sludge ages would provide optimum energy conservation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2018.05.034
0956-053X/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
218 C. Karaca et al. / Waste Management 78 (2018) 217–226
Nomenclature
A2O anaerobic-anoxic-oxic process
ASM activated sludge model
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials
COD chemical oxygen demand
CV calorific value
DM dry matter
HHV higher heating value
LHV lower heating value
in the sludge also including particulate COD entrapped onto bio-
mass, while removing soluble COD and securing an effluent quality
suitable for reuse (Basßaran et al., 2012; Sözen et al., 2016). Studies
estimated the energy equivalent of the organic matter (COD) in
wastewater in the narrow range of 13.807–14.895 kJ/kg COD
(Heidrich et al., 2011; McCarty et al., 2011). Depending on the type
of selected biological treatment scheme, a fraction of this energy is
transferred to generated sludge. The novel energy recovery concept
should be designed to increase this fraction and to maximize
energy recovery by novel processes (Garrido et al., 2013).
Anaerobic digestion is the traditional biochemical extension of
conventional wastewater treatment for energy recovery, where
biogas is obtained at the expense of partial biodegradation of the
organic matter in sludge. Biogas recovery was first practiced in
1985, 20 years earlier than the discovery of activated sludge pro-
cess, using the primitive version of anaerobic digestion (Bushwell,
1957). While biogas generation is useful, the process is quite inef-
fective: It only breaks down 35–50% of the COD/VSS in sludge and
converts it into methane; it leaves behind a highly diluted, half sta-
bilized sludge, which needs to be processed before final disposal
(Svardal and Kroiss, 2011; Bolzonella et al., 2012). Aside from
anaerobic digestion, energy recovery can also be accomplished by
means of thermochemical processes, which include a range of
technologies including gasification, pyrolysis, reforming and
hydrothermal conversion, aiming to obtain similar end products,
but often involve a series of chemical transformations (Luque
et al., 2012).
Pyrolysis is one of the innovative technologies that has been
extensively investigated and implemented in the past decades to
recover energy from a wide range waste material ranging from
feedstock; organic residues to plastics and many others (Fytili
and Zabaniotou, 2008; Basu, 2010; Antoniou and Zabaniotou,
2013; Miandad et al., 2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b). Briefly, the
pyrolysis process involves heating and holding biomass for a spec-
ified time in the absence of oxygen, to disintegrate into various
energy–rich products; the principle products are commonly
defined as syngas (CO, H2, CO2, CH4); tar, also known as bio-oil
(organic compounds with low volatility mixed with water) and
biochar, the solid by-product. Depending on the selected pyrolysis
temperature, the nature and composition of products may be chan-
ged. Most of the early studies were focused on flash pyrolysis at
medium temperature to maximize bio-oil production (Scott et al.,
1985; Piskorz et al., 1986; Yaman, 2004; Dominguez et al., 2005;
Fonts et al., 2009; Zaimes et al., 2015). Aside the temperature, there
are many parameters such as particle size, heating rate, residence
time, and rotation speed in case of using a rotating reactor, which
would affect the yield of the ultimate products along the process
(Basu, 2010).
This study was basically conducted to evaluate and propose
high temperature pyrolysis as a promising energy recovery alter-
native to the traditional anaerobic digestion of sludge. Essentially,
this technology is not so widely applied at industrial level, espe-
cially not for sludge generated by sewage treatment. As summa-
OMF organic matter fraction
OSA oxic-settling-anaerobic
RPM revolutions per minute
SFMBR super-fast membrane bioreactors
VSS volatile suspended solids
WWTP wastewater treatment plant
rized in Karaca et al. (2015), similar studies (Dominguez, 2006;
Dominguez et al., 2008; Fonts et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2011;
Pedroza et al., 2014; Ospanov et al., 2015) were conducted to
explore the energy recovery potential of pyrolysis from sewage
sludge. As it will be analyzed in the following sections of the paper,
these studies, although useful, were conducted as random research
efforts, lacking the basic information for a unified evaluation. In
this context, this work was basically focused on recognizing all
the necessary parameters for defining a unified basis of high tem-
perature pyrolysis of sewage sludge mainly aiming at syngas gen-
eration, emphasizing the influence of temperature and rotation
speed on the composition of syngas. The results were compared
with the expected outputs of anaerobic digestion based on com-
parison of the respective energy generation levels.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Experimental rationale
The experimental study was designed to determine the energy
recovery potential of high temperature pyrolysis from sewage
sludge; it essentially aimed to uncover conditions that would max-
imize syngas generation, a product quite suitable to be used as a
potential renewable energy supply that would replace natural
gas after appropriate treatment. A laboratory scale pyrolysis sys-
tem designed for batch mode operation was used for this purpose.
The energy recovery achieved in the pyrolysis unit was evaluated
in terms of solid (biochar), liquid (tar) and gas (syngas) components
obtained at the end of batch operation; the variation in the relative
magnitude of these components was observed as a function of
selected operation conditions. In this study, pyrolysis temperature
and rotation speed were chosen as the major parameters to deter-
mine the diversity of the products. The applied ranges for these
two parameters were selected based on practical experience
reported in the literature (Dümpelmann et al., 1991). The rotation
speed was chosen to have a homogenous mixture in the system.
The system should be well mixed in order to see how the sample
thermally cracked within different temperatures. The system tem-
perature was sequentially set at 450 °C, 600 °C, and 850 °C to rep-
resent the conditions for the low, medium and high temperature
pyrolysis (Inguanzo et al., 2002; Dominguez 2006; Ospanov et al.,
2015;). A similar approach was also accepted for the rotation
speed, where 600 rpm, 2400 rpm and 3600 rpm were applied
(Wagenaar et al., 1993; Pedroza et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2018). Rota-
tion speed defines the number of turns of the pyrolysis reactor by
time as revolutions per minute (1 rpm = 0.016 Hz) so the selected
rotation speeds were identified as 10 Hz, 40 Hz and 60 Hz through
the paper.
2.2. Experimental set-up
Dried sludge was subjected to pyrolysis in an electrically heated
rotary kiln pyrolysis system. The rotary kiln pyrolysis set-up was
 C. Karaca et al. / Waste Management 78 (2018) 217–226
manufactured by one of the local construction firm (IET Engineer-
ing). The system included (1) electrical heating furnace, (2) stain-
less steel reactor, (3) automated pyrolysis chamber, (4) gas
outlet, (5) tar outlet, (6) flare, (7) thermocouple of heater cabin,
(8) thermocouple of gas pipe and (9) thermocouple of flare as illus-
trated in Fig. 1. The length and inner diameter of stainless steel
reactor were 540 mm and 140 mm, respectively.
Instant temperature of heater cabin, gas pipe and flare were
measured with thermocouples. The reactor was completely auto-
mated to obtain the instant temperatures at the three locations
mentioned. The reactor was operated at a batch mode. In a typical
run, the temperature of the electrical heating furnace was
increased at a heating rate of approximately 10 °C/min up to the
desired pyrolysis temperature. After the temperature was stabi-
lized in the furnace, the stainless steel reactor with the sludge sam-
ple was placed into the furnace carefully. The residence time of the
experiment took approximately 1–2 h depending on the experi-
mental conditions, i.e. temperature and rotation speed. The syngas
evolved during the experiments was observed for 40–60 min at
each run conducted at specified operating conditions. The temper-
ature was monitored automatically and the pressure of the gas was
also observed from the manometer located on the pipe.
The syngas was collected at the outlet 4 and the composition
was determined by means of a portable MRU-VarioPlus gas ana-
lyzer (Deutschland). Evolved gas was then passed through the
pipes and was disposed with flare. The tar was flushed from outlet
5 (Fig. 1). The yields and composition of the principal products
depended on operational conditions of the pyrolysis process. Pyrol-
ysis temperature and rotational speed were chosen as the repre-
sentative parameters to determine the effect of operational
conditions on principle products. After each run, the amounts of
tar and biochar were weighted and the amount of the syngas
was calculated by the weight difference given in Eq. (1). MS is
the mass of syngas (g); MSS is the mass of sewage sludge fed into
the reactor (g); MT is the mass of tar (g) and MB is the mass of bio-
char (g).
M S ¼ M SS  ðMT þ MB Þ
The experiments were conducted on eight different runs (Run
1-Run 8) at three different temperatures (450 °C, 600 °C, and
850 °C) at a rotation speed of 10 Hz, 40 Hz and 60 Hz. The mass
of sludge was kept around 500–555 g at each run as indicated in
Table 1. Energy and mass balance were established based on only
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the experimental set-up.
219
four runs (Run 1, 4, 5, 8). Each run was duplicated under the same
conditions to justify the results. The results were close to each
other in each duplicated experiments (2–4% variation).
2.3. Experimental analysis
Sewage sludge was obtained from the Pasakoy Advanced Bio-
logical Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Istanbul. While
the Pasakoy WWTP was designed in an A2O process scheme
(Sözen et al., 2009), it is operated at an extended aeration mode
at a high sludge age of 30 days. This way, the biomass is mineral-
ized within the system at the expense of additional volume and
aeration (Insel et al., 2015). The biological sludge sampled for the
study, leaves the system with an initial dry matter (DM) content
of 1.3% and sequentially processed in a dewatering and a drying
unit, increasing its DM content to 30% and 94% respectively. Conse-
quently, this study was carried out using an aerobically stabilized
and dried sludge with a DM content of 94%. A picture of the sample
of dried sludge used in the study was provided in the supplemen-
tary materials.
Dried sludge was subjected to a series of proximate, elemental
and calorific value analyses. The proximate analysis was conducted
to determine volatile matter; ash; fixed carbon and the total sulfur
content of the representative sludge sample using LECO TGA701
(USA) standard equipment in compliance with ASTM D3172
(ASTM D3172, 2013). All analyses required a re-drying process at
105 °C to completely evaporate the initial moisture content of 6%
of the sludge sample.
The sample was then subjected to elemental analysis for the
assessment of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen with LECO
TruSpec-CHN (USA) along with sulphur with TruSpec-S elemental
analyzer (USA) using the methodology defined in ASTM D5373
and ASTM D4239, respectively (ASTM D5373, 2014; ASTM
D4239, 2014). Oxygen was also calculated from the equation given
in the ASTM D5373 (ASTM D5373, 2016).
Higher Heating Value (HHV) and Lower Heating Values (LHV) of
sewage sludge, tar, and biochar were determined by using LECO
ð1Þ
AC-600 bomb calorimeter (USA) in compliance with the methodol-
ogy given in ASTM-D-5865 (ASTM D5865, 2013). The higher heat-
ing value was measured at dry sample whereas the lower heating
value was measured at original sample at 6% moisture content. All
the analytical equipments were in full-working order. They have
been previously tested for operability.
220 C. Karaca et al. / Waste Management 78 (2018) 217–226

Table 1
Operating conditions of the experiments.

Experiments Temperature (¯C) Rotation Speed (Hz) Sludge (Mss)

Total Organic*
gr gr
Run 1 450 60 555 358
Run 2 600 10 555 358
Run 3 600 40 520 335
Run 4 600 60 510 330
Run 5 850 10 550 355
Run 6 850 40 1030 665
Run 7 850 60 500 325
Run 8 850 60 555 358
*
65% organic matter in the sludge.

The syngas was analyzed with a MRU VarioPlus portable gas
chromatography. Gas chromatography was used to measure the
gas composition of evolved syngas examining the weight percent-
age of CO, CO2, N2, CH4, and H2. The specific calorific values of each
gas components (CH4: 35.648 kJ/m3, H2: 10.732 kJ/m3, CO: 12.552
kJ/m3) were taken into account together with the weight percent-
age of gas composition in order to calculate the calorific value of
the syngas. The volume of evolved syngas was calculated using
the known specific gravity of each gas components in the syngas
(CH4: 0.7 kg/m3, H2: 0.09 kg/m3, CO: 1.2 kg/m3, CO2: 1.9 kg/m3,
N2: 1.2 kg/m3, O2: 1.38 kg/m3).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Sludge characterization
The Pasakoy treatment plant, which supplied the biological
sludge sample for the study, currently treats a municipal sewage
flow of around 130.000 m3/d with an average COD content of
535 mg/L (Sözen et al., 2009), a level compatible with sewage char-
acteristics previously assessed in Istanbul Metropolitan Area (Orhon
et al., 1994; Tas et al., 2009) aside from COD, it contains slightly
higher levels of 61 mg/L of total nitrogen and 11 mg/L of total
phosphorus.
Results of the characterization experiments are outlined in
Table 2; they indicated that the dry solids content of sludge
included a high inorganic (ash) fraction of 35%, presumably reflect-
ing accumulation of inorganic material in biomass, due to extended
aeration mode of plant operation at a sludge age of 30 d. It should
be noted that the proximate analysis were carried out on dry basis
Table 2
The characteristics of the dried sludge.
and elemental analysis on ash-free basis. The elemental analyses
showed that the organic fraction of the sludge approximately con-
sisted of 34% C, 4% H, 5% N and 20% O, leading to a higher heating
value of 14.435 kJ and a lower heating value of 13.535 kJ per kg dry
matter (DM). The calorific value of the sludge 13.535 kJ/kg DM,
when calculated in terms of volatile suspended solids (VSS) that
usually defines the organic fraction of biomass corresponded to
20.815 kJ/kg VSS. Adopting the COD equivalence of 1 kg COD/
0.75 kg VSS suggested in the ASM3 model (Koch et al., 2000), the
calorific value of sludge may also be expressed as 15.610 kJ/kg bio-
mass COD, a value compatible with previously reported levels in
the literature.
The results of elemental analyses of sludge from two different
treatment plants (Orhon and Artan, 1994) were compared. It
should be noted that the carbon content of the biomass used in this
study (34%) is significantly lower than that of the other sludge
compositions (Prague; 51% and Sedlec; 50%) given in supplemen-
tary material Table A, due to internal mineralization and conver-
sion to CO2 in the extended aeration mode of plant operation.
The results also enabled to derive an empirical formula for the
sludge as C7H11NO3. This formula does not contain P and S, because
it is expressed as simple as possible; mainly to compare with the
historical elementary composition of activated sludge defined by
the C5H7NO2 formula extensively used in process stoichiometry
(Orhon, 2015; Porges et al., 1956).
The results may be compared with several pyrolysis studies that
were carried out at high temperature under different experimental
conditions, where the ash content differed in a range of 30–52.6%
depending on the origin of the sewage sludge, and the high calori-
fic values ranged between 13.941 and 24.292 kJ/kg DM sewage
sludge (Fonts et al., 2009; Pedroza et al., 2014; Ospanov et al.,
2015; Inguanzo et al., 2002).

Parameter Characteristics
3.2. Mass balance for organic matter
Proximate Analyses (wt%)
Moisture (%) 6.0*
Pyrolysis experiments were conducted with the main objective
Volatile Matter (%) 55.5
Fixed Carbon (%) 9.0 of identifying the optimum operating conditions that would max-
Ash (%) 35.5 imize energy recovery, preferably in terms of syngas production; as
Total Sulfur (%) 0.98 mentioned before, syngas can be an easy and suitable substitute
Elemental Analyses (wt%) for natural gas, which is widely used in treatment plants and
Carbon (C) 34.08 industrial activities for various purposes. Assessment of experi-
Hydrogen (H) 4.33
mental results was conducted in two consecutive steps: Distribu-
Nitrogen (N) 5.34
Sulphur (S) 0.98
tion of (i) organic matter and (ii) energy among the principal end
Oxygen (O)** 19.69 products in eight different runs designed to reflect the effect of
Heating Values (kJ/kg)
the two selected operating parameters, pyrolysis temperature
Higher Heating Value*** 14.435 and rotation speed. The results of the organic matter distribution
Lower Heating Value* 13.535 under different operating conditions are outlined in Figs. 2 and 3.
*
Original sample.
As previously mentioned, the volatile matter (organic) and ash
**
Calculated from the difference. (inorganic) contents of sludge were determined as 65 wt% and
***
Dry sample. 35 wt%, respectively. It was clear that tar and syngas originated
 C. Karaca et al. / Waste Management 78 (2018) 217–226
50 45
Organic matter
35
content (%)
40
30 20
20
10
0
600
Run 2
Temperature (°C )
70
Organic matter
60
content (%)
50 41 38
40
30 21 24
20 15
10
0
450 600
Run 1 Run 4
Temperature (°C)
Fig. 2. Organic matter (a) Yields of biochar, tar and syngas products with different temperatures at the rotation speed of 10 Hz (b) Yields of biochar, tar and syngas products
with different temperatures at the rotation speed of 60 Hz.
from organic portion of sewage sludge and the biochar contained
the whole inorganic part (35 wt%) of the sludge together with a
portion of organic matter that could not been destructed via pyrol-
ysis process. In accordance with the objective of the study, the
experiments were focused to maximize the syngas production,
and to lower to the possible extent of tar and biochar.
These figures provide a graphical explanation of the results as
outlined below: For the biochar, pyrolysis at 850 °C with rotation
speeds of 40 and 60 Hz, kept the organic matter fraction (OMF)
at the minimum level of 12–13%. When the rotation speed was
reduced to 10 Hz, the OMF was increased to 17%. Experiments con-
ducted at 600 °C indicated incomplete organic matter reduction as
they yielded a higher level of OMF of 15–17%, regardless of the
selected rotation speed. The OMF corresponding to 400 °C was
even higher as 21% at 60 Hz. For the tar, the OMF was measured
in the range of 28–36% in pyrolysis experiments conducted at
850 °C with rotation speeds of 40 and 60 Hz. Reducing the rotation
speed to 10 Hz, increased the OMF to 40%. At 600 °C, a 6% increase
was recorded for the corresponding OMF, which remained in the
range of 34–40% at rotation speeds of 40 and 60 Hz. Dropping
the rotation speed to 10 Hz at the same temperature maximized
OMF to 45%. Pyrolysis at 450 °C also yielded a high OMF of 41%
even at 60 Hz. For the syngas, the OMF basically remained at the
same range of 52–61% in pyrolysis experiments conducted at
850 °C and 600 °C at rotation speeds at 40 Hz and above. Dropping
the rotation speed to 10 Hz decreased the OMF by 9–17% at 850 °C
and 13–16% at 600 °C. Pyrolysis at 450 °C, was quite ineffective
since the OMF remained at 38% at the rotation speed of 60 Hz. In
short, run 8; at 850 °C and 60 Hz, provided the optimum conditions
to maximize OMF for the syngas at the range of 52–61%, and kept
the OMF at the minimum level of 12–13% for the biochar.
3.3. Mass balance for energy recovery
As previously mentioned, energy mass balance was established
based on the results of four runs (Run 1, 4, 5, 8) conducted with
221
40 43
Biochar
17 Tar
Syngas
850
Run 5
(a)
61 58
52
Biochar
36
29
Tar
12 13 Syngas
850 850
Run 7 Run 8
(b)
measurements of the volume and composition of the generated
syngas. The energy balance was set by first measuring the calorific
values of sludge, tar and biochar and then, by accounting for the
remaining part of the energy input as the energy encapsulated in
the syngas. The original calorific value (kJ/kg) of sludge, tar, biochar
and syngas were given in supplementary material Table B. The dis-
tribution of energy among the principal end products for each run
is outlined in Table 3. Using the mass, the volume and the compo-
sition of the syngas, the calorific value (CV) of syngas obtained in
each run under different operating conditions was calculated as
shown in Table 3.
The energy conservation and recovery potential of pyrolysis
based on experimental results for Run 8, which represents best
operating conditions, i.e. at 850 °C with a rotation speed of 60
Hz. The effect of operating conditions on the energy balance of
the system is evaluated in Table 4.
The data displayed in Table 4 showed that when the pyrolysis
system was adjusted to best operating conditions at high temper-
ature and high rotation speed, around 74% of the energy in sludge
could potentially be recovered as syngas and tar. It should be noted
that the experiments were conducted in a batch system. In contin-
uous systems, the syngas generation could be significantly
increased by full recovery of condensable gaseous components,
i.e. avoiding partial condensation into tar under batch operation,
and recycling tar back to the reactor for allowing maximum transi-
tion into the gaseous phase.
3.4. Evaluation of results
The study basically investigated high temperature pyrolysis for
the purpose of exploring its performance and potential of energy
recovery preferably as gaseous products (syngas). Important
aspects on the effect of pyrolysis temperature and rotation speed
are displayed in Figs. 2 and 3. First, rotation speed of 10 Hz was
not suitable for this purpose, since it increased the energy content
of biochar; similarly, the energy recovered as tar was increased to
222 C. Karaca et al. / Waste Management 78 (2018) 217–226

Organic matter content

70 58 61
60
50 45
40 35
30 Biochar
(%)
30 20 24
20 12 15 Tar
10 Syngas
0
10 Hz 40 Hz 60 Hz
Run 2 Run 3 Run 4
Rotation Speed (Hz)
(a)
Organic matter content

70 60 58
60
50 40 43
40 29
28
(%)

30 Biochar
17 13
20 12
10 Tar
0 Syngas
10 Hz 40 Hz 60 Hz
Run 5 Run 6 Run 7
Rotation Speed (Hz)
(b)
Fig. 3. Organic matter (a) Yields of biochar, tar and syngas products with different rotation speeds at 600 °C (b) Yields of biochar, tar and syngas products with different
rotation speeds at 850 °C.

Table 3
Components and calorific values of syngas under different operating conditions.

Runs Temperature (°C) Rotation Speed (Hz) Calorific Value Syngas Volume Gas Components Syngas CV (kJ/m3)
(volume basis)
Sludge Biochar Tar Syngas Volume CH4 H2 CO CO2
kJ kJ kJ kJ (m3) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Run 1 450 60 7510 2720 1828 2406 0.17 41 35 11 13 19.598
Run 4 600 60 6904 2046 971 3423 0.22 34 33 20 13 18.054
Run 5 850 10 7443 2335 2138 2623 0.19 28 37 20 15 16.297
Run 8 850 60 7510 2029 1933 3535 0.24 34 35 13 18 17.422

Table 4
Energy balance of pyrolysis experiments under different operating conditions.

Experiments Temperature Rotation Speed Sludge Biochar Tar Syngas Possible Error
(°C) (Hz) (kJ) (kJ) % (kJ) % (kJ) % %
Run 1 450 60 7510 2720 36 1828 24 2406 35 6
Run 4 600 60 6904 2046 32 971 27 3423 33 7
Run 5 850 10 7448 2335 31 2138 29 2628 35 5
Run 8 850 60 7510 2029 26 1933 26 3540 48 <1

the same or higher level than that of syngas, regardless of temper-
ature (Fig. 2). Second, high rotation speed of pyrolysis at 600 °C
lowered the energy of tar in favor of syngas (Fig. 3a). Finally, high
rate pyrolysis at 850 °C yielded the best energy distribution among
end products, maximizing syngas generation both at rotation
speeds of 40 and 60 Hz (Fig. 3b). It should be mentioned again that
in continuous pyrolysis systems, recovering condensable gaseous
products and/or recycling tar back into the pyrolysis unit could
substantially increase the syngas generation.
The merit of exploring best operating conditions to optimize
energy recovery can best be summarized with the data given in
the supplementary material Table C. In the literature, the ratio of
organic content in the sludge that remained after pyrolysis was
reported in the range of 17–35% (Zhang et al., 2011; Pedroza
et al., 2014; Inguanzo et al., 2002; Hossain et al., 2009). The organic
content of biochar under optimum operating conditions in this
study was calculated 12%, significantly lower than the reported
range, although the organic content of sludge was practically the
 C. Karaca et al. / Waste Management 78 (2018) 217–226
same. The difference was simply due to the fact that the operating
conditions in other studies were randomly selected, without any
concern to minimize the organic content of biochar.
Comparison of the organic content and the corresponding
energy in biochar also revealed an interesting feature of pyrolysis
performance. As the energy and COD contents are theoretically
equivalent, Table 5 shows that the COD/organic matter ratio
(COD/VSS) increased from 1.7 g COD/g VSS at 450 °C to around
1.82–2.16 g COD/g VSS at 850 °C. At this point, it should be remem-
bered that the dried sludge used in the study could be character-
ized by an empirical formula C7H11NO3, which reflects a COD/VSS
ratio of 1.53 g COD/g VSS. With reference to this ratio, it could be
deduced that the organic content of biochar was almost the same
as that of sludge itself at 450 °C, whereas it became gradually
reduced to approach elemental carbon as the temperature
increased. Since carbon black (elemental carbon) is the carbon form
with a COD/VSS ratio of 2.6 g COD/g VSS, biochar still contains a
slight portion of unreduced organic impurities even at 850 °C. On
the other hand, the COD/VSS ratio of 1.53 g COD/g VSS associated
with the sludge is slightly higher than 1.42 g COD/g VSS defined
by the historical C5H7NO2 formula or 1.33 g COD/g VSS suggested
by ASM3 (Çokgör et al., 1998; Koch et al., 2000). The observed dif-
ference could be presumably explained by a higher content of
residual microbial products, due to plant operation at excessively
high sludge age of 30 d.
This evaluation should also underline that similar studies
reported in the literature commonly adopted the characteristics
and the calorific value of the sludge studied as the starting point
of their appraisals: They overlooked the energy conservation
achieved in the treatment plant through the generated sludge.
Obviously, a unified basis of estimation can only be obtained if
energy recovery is considered as an integral part of energy conser-
vation. In simpler terms, wastewater sludge should not be consid-
ered alone, without consideration of key parameters that define
the type of treatment. They can be qualified at best ‘‘as random
research efforts, lacking the basic information for a unified evalua-
tion”. As a basis for reference, Table 6 lists the highlights of four dif-
ferent studies conducted on the sludge sourced by different
wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), together with similar
results obtained in this study.
It should be noted from Table 6 that the sewage sludge with a
high heating value of 14.435 kJ/kg as indicated run 8 in this study,
conducted at 850 °C and 60 Hz, yielded an energy recovery of 74%
presenting an energy potential of 15.506 kJ per kg organic sludge.
A general inspection of related data also included in Table 6
revealed that (i) Ospanov et al., 2015 recovered 71% energy on
the basis of tar and syngas, similar to this study, as they were
carried out under the same conditions as 850 °C and 50 Hz.
However, Ospanov et al., 2015 used sludge with a calorific value
of 21.234 kJ/kg that displayed a totally different character resulting
in the recovery of 23.095 kJ per kg organic sludge. (ii) Pedroza
et al., 2014 reported the recovery of 40% energy as total syngas
and tar much lower than the results of other studies in the
literature, presumably due to the lower volatile matter and higher
ash content of the sludge analyzed.
Table 5
The COD/VSS ratio of biochar under different operating conditions.
Experiments Temperature Rotation Speed (Hz)
(°C)
Run 1 450 60
Run 4 600 60
Run 5 850 10
Run 8 850 60
223
As briefly mentioned above, the highlights displayed in the
Table 6, do not offer a platform for benchmarking, mainly because
they only concentrate on a selected sludge type, with no informa-
tion on the origin, the magnitude and the mode of treatment that
generated it. They give access only to the visible part, i.e. what frac-
tion of energy can be recovered from sludge, but no access for
behind the scene information, i.e. what fraction of the energy con-
tained in the wastewater is consumed and wasted before generat-
ing the sludge used in the studies.
Undoubtedly, the energy recovery management requires a com-
prehensive/unified approach in a life cycle assessment mode, neces-
sarily covering all the essential parameters related to the design
and operation of the treatment plant, because this is how the
energy is best conserved even before the sludge is generated.
3.5. Practical implications
The results of the study provides strong indications that high
temperature pyrolysis may be considered as an alternative to
anaerobic digestion in the conventional wastewater treatment
scheme, as a more efficient energy recovery process from sludge.
At this stage, it would be instructive to carry out a preliminary
analysis comparing the net energy recovery potentials of the two
systems. The biogas generated in the anaerobic digestion may be
estimated using the range of 35–50% for VSS and/or COD destruc-
tion as suggested in the literature (Bolzonella et al., 2012; Svaldal
and Kroiss, 2011; Gebreeyessus and Jenicek, 2016). The sludge
used in the pyrolysis experiments (550 g) was characterized by a
volatile suspended solids ratio of 65 wt%; this ratio implies that
under the same conditions, the sample would introduce 350 g of
organic sludge into anaerobic digestion. Adopting an average ratio
of 40% for VSS and/or COD, for the destruction in anaerobic diges-
tion, the resulting magnitude of organic matter biodegradation
may be calculated as 140 g VSS.
Using the characteristic of the sludge in the study (1.53 g COD/g
VSS), this amount also corresponds to 215 g COD of biodegraded
organic matter. Under mesophilic conditions, anaerobic biodegra-
dation of 215 g sludge COD approximately generates 0.075 m3
methane during anaerobic digestion (1 g COD = 0.35 L CH4). The
energy potential of 0.075 m3 methane corresponds to 2677 kJ
(1 m3 CH4  35.648 kJ) (Metcalf and Eddy, 2003). From values
given above, the energy potential of anaerobic digestion can be
theoretically approximated as 7657 kJ/kg VSS.
The experimental results in this study determined an energy
potential of the syngas as 15.606 kJ per kg organic sludge, in high
temperature pyrolysis corresponding to 74% energy recovery. A
preliminary analysis comparing this potential with 7657 kJ/kg
VSS related to anaerobic digestion shows the energy recovery
potential of high temperature pyrolysis as more than twice higher
than the conventional anaerobic digestion. It should be further
noted that pyrolysis achieved thermo-destruction of almost all
available organic matter in sludge. In full-scale applications, a
slight portion of the generated energy remains with the biochar,
as organic carbon. The remaining part is recovered mostly as syn-
gas. However, 10–15% of the syngas recovered is recirculated back
Organic Calorific Value COD/VSS
gr % kJ %
75 21 2720 36 1.70
48 15 2046 32 2.13
60 17 2335 31 1.90
43 12 2029 26 2.16
224 C. Karaca et al. / Waste Management 78 (2018) 217–226

Table 6
Highlights of high temperature pyrolysis.

Parameters Inguanzo et al. (2002) Ospanov et al. (2015) Pedroza et al. (2014) Dominguez (2006) This Study
Characteristics of the WWTP
Wastewater COD (mg/L) NA* NA NA NA 535
Sludge age (d) NA NA NA NA 30
Sludge source Anaerobically digested Secondary Settling Tank Aerobically digested Aerobically digested Anaerobically digested
Sludge HHV (kJ/kg) 16.527 21.234 21.087 16.694 14.435
Sludge Characteristics
Moisture % 5.2 5.3 6 71 6
Ash % 29.5 30 38 31 35
Volatile matter % 60.7 65 54 62 55
Carbon % 35 47.7 28 52 34
Operational Conditions
Temperature (°C) 850 850 650 1040 850
Heating Rate (°C min1) 60 50 NA NA 60
Rotation Speed (Hz) NA NA 30 NA 60
Total product yields
Gas % 17 17 24 30 34
Solid % 45 42 52 10 42
Liquid % 40 41 24 57 23
Energy
Gas % 22 17 20 28 48
Solid % 12 24 14 4 29
Liquid % 63 54 20 5 26
Energy Recovery** (%) 85 71 40 33 74
kJ/kg organic sludge 23.313 23.096 15.480 11.297 15.606
*
NA: not available.
**
Calculated based on tar and syngas.

to meet internal energy requirements and maintain the reactor at
the desired temperature (Cao and Pawlowski, 2012). Accounting
for the internal energy requirements of pyrolysis the net energy
generation may be reduced to around 13.700 kJ/kg organic sludge.
This still represents a significant edge compared to anaerobic
digestion and definitely gives a promising perspective for a wider
comparison, which is not given in the preliminary calculations pro-
vided here. Furthermore, anaerobic digestion leaves behind the
major fraction of sludge with 2–3% dry matter content; it also
involves substantial costs for dewatering and final disposal of
residual sludge.
It may be argued that pyrolysis requires a preliminary drying
step that would reduce the moisture content of the sludge to less
than 20%, a process requiring energy. However, this energy con-
sumption should not be directly associated with pyrolysis, because
it should be envisaged as the necessary component of the final
sludge disposal process, i.e. incineration, land disposal, etc., More-
over, pyrolysis also secures substantial sludge reduction for final
disposal, leaving only behind the biochar, a commercially valuable
by-product (Samolada and Zabaniotou, 2014). It is surprising to
note that in all the evaluations towards energy efficient treatment
systems, anaerobic digestion/biogas maintains its place as the sole
energy source. However, this study clearly identified high temper-
ature pyrolysis as a much more promising alternative for this pur-
pose. This should be underlined as the essential motivation for the
evaluations in this study.
At this stage, it should be remembered that the energy recovery
from wastewater requires a unified management sequence involv-
ing to maximize (i) energy conservation in sludge by adopting high
rate activated sludge systems (ii) energy recovery from sludge
implementing a more efficient process compared to anaerobic
digestion. In this context, the sludge sample used in this study rep-
resented ‘‘a worst-case scenario in terms of energy conservation”,
since it was aerobically stabilized within the treatment system. As
a support of the unified approach mentioned above, this statement
should be further clarified using the data of the treatment plant
where the sludge was taken: As summarized in the materials and
methods section, the Pasakoy activated sludge plant treats a
sewage flow of 130.000 m3/d, with an influent COD of 0.535 kg/
m3. Although it is a nutrient removal plant, it is unfortunately
operated at the extended aeration mode, at a sludge age of 30 d.
The total COD load of the treatment is around 70.000 kg/d. The
selected mode of system operation generates 15.000 kg/d of sludge
so that the conserved sludge ratio remains only as 21% both in
terms of influent COD and energy. The calculation details are pro-
vided in the supplementary material section. This study indicated
that around 70% of the sludge energy is recoverable with high rate
pyrolysis. This way, the overall magnitude of energy recovery
becomes limited to 14% regardless of how efficient is the high tem-
perature pyrolysis for recovering energy from sludge. Based on the
calorific value of 14.226 kJ/kg COD, this corresponds to the recov-
ered energy of 15.107 kJ/d or the equivalent of 4200 m3 of natural
gas per day.
If the operation of the treatment plant was to be changed and
adjusted to a sludge age of 10 d, like all routine nutrient removal
plants (Insel et al., 2015), the recovery of influent COD into sludge
would increase to 32%. This means that pyrolysis would recover a
much higher energy level of 22.107 kJ/d, corresponding to 6400 m3
of natural gas per day. The evaluations exemplified above indicate
the need to give serious consideration to novel biological treat-
ment technologies for organic carbon removal, using membrane
bioreactors instead of traditional gravity settling, operated at
extremely high rates in a sludge age range of 0.5–2.0 d. Related
studies reported that these systems called as super-fast membrane
bioreactors (SFMBR) possess the potential of increasing the conser-
vation ratio of influent COD into sludge to above 70% (Sözen et al.,
2016; Sözen et al., 2017).
4. Conclusion
Under optimum operating conditions at 850 °C and rotation
speed of 60 Hz, high temperature pyrolysis proved to be an effec-
tive novel technology, which displayed an energy recovery poten-
tial of 74% as syngas and tar. A preliminary evaluation of the
experimental data indicated that high temperature pyrolysis could
 C. Karaca et al. / Waste Management 78 (2018) 217–226
potentially recover more than twice as much energy as compared
to anaerobic digestion. The results clearly showed that high tem-
perature pyrolysis embodied all the necessary attributes to replace
the traditional anaerobic digestion, both in terms of energy recov-
ery and disposal of end products.
Energy conservation in sludge should be regarded as an integral
component of energy recovery management. The energy conserva-
tion component requires a major change in the conventional treat-
ment strategy towards high rate systems and higher rates of sludge
generation. The adopted strategy should equally consider and eval-
uate the energy in sludge as a fraction of the energy contained in
the wastewater so that the adopted management scheme could
cover all the essential parameters of the treatment plant, because
this is how the energy is best conserved even before the sludge
is generated.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2018.05.
034.
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