Energy recovery in supercritical water oxydation process
Résumé
This paper focuses on the energy recovery within a supercritical water oxidation process. Such a process might be used for the treatment of aqueous waste or directly for the processing of liquid biomass to recover energy. In the first section of this paper, the main features of such a process are given. It leads to the conclusion that the use of a Rankine's cycle is necessary if electricity production is looked for. In the second section, the technical constraints linked to the use of water at high pressure and high temperature are presented and translated into operating limits that should not be exceeded. Finally, the software ProSimPlus© is used to compute an optimal set of operating parameter, maximizing the electrical efficiency of the whole process. The optimal value of 1.75% was obtained for this parameter, leading to the conclusion that electricity cannot be produced from such a process, but instead, the energy released by the oxidation of the organic compounds should be recovered as heat.