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Main Authors: Shen, Sabrina C., Spitzer, Branden, Stefaniuk, Damian, Zhou, Shengfei, Masic, Admir, Buehler, Markus J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12591
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author Shen, Sabrina C.
Spitzer, Branden
Stefaniuk, Damian
Zhou, Shengfei
Masic, Admir
Buehler, Markus J.
author_facet Shen, Sabrina C.
Spitzer, Branden
Stefaniuk, Damian
Zhou, Shengfei
Masic, Admir
Buehler, Markus J.
contents Sewage sludge, a biosolid product of wastewater processing, is an often-overlooked source of rich organic waste. Hydrothermal processing (HTP), which uses heat and pressure to convert biomass into various solid, liquid, and gaseous products, has shown promise in converting sewage sludge into new materials with potential application in biofuels, asphalt binders, and bioplastics. In this study we focus on hydrochar, the carbonaceous HTP solid phase, and investigate its use as a bio-based filler in additive manufacturing technologies. We explore the impact of HTP and subsequent thermal activation on chemical and structural properties of sewage sludge and discuss the role of atypical metallic and metalloid dopants in organic material processing. In additive manufacturing composites, although the addition of hydrochar generally decreases mechanical performance, we show that toughness and strain can be recovered with hierarchical microstructures, much like biological materials that achieve outstanding properties by architecting relatively weak building blocks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_12591
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Valorizing Sewage Sludge: Using Nature-Inspired Architecture to Overcome Intrinsic Weaknesses of Waste-Based Materials
Shen, Sabrina C.
Spitzer, Branden
Stefaniuk, Damian
Zhou, Shengfei
Masic, Admir
Buehler, Markus J.
Materials Science
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Sewage sludge, a biosolid product of wastewater processing, is an often-overlooked source of rich organic waste. Hydrothermal processing (HTP), which uses heat and pressure to convert biomass into various solid, liquid, and gaseous products, has shown promise in converting sewage sludge into new materials with potential application in biofuels, asphalt binders, and bioplastics. In this study we focus on hydrochar, the carbonaceous HTP solid phase, and investigate its use as a bio-based filler in additive manufacturing technologies. We explore the impact of HTP and subsequent thermal activation on chemical and structural properties of sewage sludge and discuss the role of atypical metallic and metalloid dopants in organic material processing. In additive manufacturing composites, although the addition of hydrochar generally decreases mechanical performance, we show that toughness and strain can be recovered with hierarchical microstructures, much like biological materials that achieve outstanding properties by architecting relatively weak building blocks.
title Valorizing Sewage Sludge: Using Nature-Inspired Architecture to Overcome Intrinsic Weaknesses of Waste-Based Materials
topic Materials Science
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12591