APPLICATION OF HYDROTHERMAL GASIFICATION METHOD IN THE TREATMENT OF WASTEWATER GENERATED FROM AFYONKARAH？SAR-ALKALOID PLANT

The wastewater coming from the alkaloid production plant installed in our province Afyon, must satisfy the discharge limits specified in “Water Pollution Control Regulations, 2004” to discharge safely to the receiving environment. Treatment of alkaloid plant wastewater by the existing treatment method which is a combination of the biological (aerobic / anaerobic) and chemical treatment is not sufficient. In this study, hydrothermal gasification (or supercritical water gasification, SCWG) is proposed as an alternative and advanced treatment technique. The other objectives of the study is to show the producibility of methane and hydrogen as renewable energy source and to investigate , to investigate what extent removal of chemical oxygen demand and polluting compounds as a spontaneous result of gasification. The effect of catalyst in the highest conversion of organic carbon content in wastewater to the gaseous product rich in H2 ve CH4, the maximum efficiencies in TOC and COD removals. Hydrothermal gasification studies of alkaloid wastewater were carried out without catalyst and with Na2CO3 (N). The experiments were performed at the reaction temperatures of 400, 500 and 600°C with/without 0.12 g of catalyst and 15 ml of wastewater. The gaseous products were analysed in gas chromatography, the TOC and COD content of the aqueous products and raw wastewater were analysed in TOC analyser and COD analysis set. The variation of the product distribution and yields, TOC and COD removal by temperature and catalysis were examined. The initial TOC, and COD values of the wastewater studied were 15.000 mg/L and 35.000 mg/L.