The
fatty esters in cooking oil may not be inert organics. Their
potential involvement in hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of food
waste was investigated in this study. Cooked cabbage (vegetable) and
rice (staple food) were selected as the feedstock and their HTC in
the presence of (vegetable oil) and lard (animal fat) was conducted
at 260 °C for 10 h. The results indicated that presence of the
cooking oil increased the hydrochar yield (i.e., 71.5% increase for
HTC of rice with lard) originating from the reactions between the
oil-derived fatty acids and the food-derived alcohols, amines, etc.
This significantly increased both the carbon and hydrogen contents
and simultaneously reduced the oxygen content of the hydrochar. The
additional aliphatics from the cooking oil formed on hydrochar remarkably
reduced the thermal stability of the hydrochar, but increased the
volatility and led to improved combustion performance through lowering
the activation energy for combustion.
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