Energy Equilibrium and Conversion on Supercritical Water Oxidation of Organic Liquid-Waste

Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) was first proposed almost 20 years ago as a potential organic waste treatment technology. In this paper, the energy-conversion system of supercritical water oxidation is built up in terms of a transpiring-wall reactor, in which the glucose-water solution is used to mimic the organic liquid-waste. Additionally, considering mass and energy conservations, the calculation on its energy equilibrium is implemented and, furthermore, the influence of different operating parameters on the ratio of energy utilization is discussed in detail. It is found out that under certain specified conditions, the ratio of effective energy utilization may reach 34.3% and it may augment with the increase of the concentration of organic compounds and/or the decrease of excess coefficient of oxygen. The results exhibit that the pressure and the disposal quantity of liquid-waste play a crucial role. It should be highlighted that the supercritical Water Oxidation techniques can be employed to dispose the organic liquid-waste and reuse the reaction energy. Therefore, these are of particular engineering and environmental significance.