Avinash Shinde, MKSSS's Cummins College of Engineering for Women
The potential of household kitchen waste as a resource for valuable products is being explored in this international collaboration between the University of New Haven in West Haven, CT, USA, and MKSSS's Cummins College of Engineering for Women in Pune, India. The thermal decomposition of this waste is being investigated via pyrolysis, with a maximum operating temperature of 650°C. While bio-oil and biogas are also produced, the generation of biochar is the primary focus of this research. As a preliminary step toward manufacturing a larger 100 kg capacity reactor, a 10 kg capacity pilot plant is being planned for testing and process optimization, including the refinement of its design and validation of simulated product yields.
Kitchen waste will be fed to a reactor where it will be heated to 650°C over a period of time, the gas generated in the reactor is cooled in the condenser to separate the biogas and biooil. Biogas will be used as fuel for heating the reactor. The biochar and unreacted waste material will be removed from the reactor after it cools down. The management of heat removal during the condensation and cooling of the produced bio-oil and biogas is being analyzed. Analytical calculations show that 20 gallons of water, at room temperature(25°C), is sufficient to cool the reactor gas at 600°C to 60°C resulting in water temperatures rising to 34°C. This project contributes to the development of a more efficient and sustainable waste-to-energy pathway, and future efforts will concentrate on validating simulated product yields through real-world testing and further optimizing the thermal management strategies for enhanced efficiency and sustainability.
