IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v335y2025ics0360544225034334.html

Co-combustion performance study of sewage sludge and rice straw based on M-DAEM

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Yaokun
  • Ni, Zhanshi
  • Ni, Hengzhi
  • Liu, Xiang
  • Tian, Junjian
  • He, Liqun
  • Lin, Qizhao
  • Meng, Kesheng
  • Yu, Qianfeng

Abstract

Co-combustion of sewage sludge (SS) and biomass, such as rice straw (RS), provides a sustainable pathway for waste valorization and renewable energy generation. This study investigated the co-combustion behavior, interaction mechanisms, reaction kinetics, and nitrogenous gas evolution of SS and RS using TG–FTIR–MS techniques. The addition of RS significantly enhanced co-combustion performance, with the combustion and flame stability indices increasing by 19.79 and 8.69 times, respectively, at the optimal SS/RS ratio of 1:3. Interaction analysis revealed that RS addition promoted the release of volatile substances. A novel multi-Gaussian distributed activation energy model (M-DAEM), integrated with a differential evolutionary algorithm, was proposed to better describe the complex multi-stage kinetics. Results indicated that RS significantly reduced the activation energy, especially during the volatile decomposition stage. FTIR–MS analysis showed that RS addition reduced NOx emissions by suppressing precursor formation (HNCO, NH3) and facilitating CO2 and alkali-metal-mediated NO reduction. This work offers new insights into the dynamic mechanisms of SS/RS co-combustion and provides theoretical guidance for its application in clean energy recovery systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Yaokun & Ni, Zhanshi & Ni, Hengzhi & Liu, Xiang & Tian, Junjian & He, Liqun & Lin, Qizhao & Meng, Kesheng & Yu, Qianfeng, 2025. "Co-combustion performance study of sewage sludge and rice straw based on M-DAEM," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:335:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225034334
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.137791
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225034334
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.137791?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shui, Hengfu & Shan, Chuanjun & Cai, Zhengyi & Wang, Zhicai & Lei, Zhiping & Ren, Shibiao & Pan, Chunxiu & Li, Haiping, 2011. "Co-liquefaction behavior of a sub-bituminous coal and sawdust," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 6645-6650.
    2. Liu, Chao & Liu, Jingyong & Evrendilek, Fatih & Xie, Wuming & Kuo, Jiahong & Buyukada, Musa, 2020. "Bioenergy and emission characterizations of catalytic combustion and pyrolysis of litchi peels via TG-FTIR-MS and Py-GC/MS," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1074-1093.
    3. Wu, Junnan & Liao, Yanfen & Lin, Yan & Tian, Yunlong & Ma, Xiaoqian, 2019. "Study on thermal decomposition kinetics model of sewage sludge and wheat based on multi distributed activation energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 795-803.
    4. Hengjun Tang & Cheng Tang & Heng Luo & Jun Wu & Jinliang Wu & Jian Wang & Libo Jin & Da Sun, 2023. "Study on the Effect of Two-Phase Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Rice Straw and Rural Sludge on Hydrogen and Methane Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-11, November.
    5. Ni, Zhanshi & Zhang, Yaokun & Liu, Xiang & Shi, Hao & Yao, Yurou & Tian, Junjian & Hu, Peng & He, Liqun & Lin, Qizhao & Liu, Lvdan, 2024. "Co-combustion of sewage sludge with corn stalk based on TG-MS and TG-DSC: Gas products, interaction mechanisms, and kinetic behavior," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    6. Tian, Junjian & Liu, Xiang & Shi, Hao & Yao, Yurou & Ni, Zhanshi & Meng, Kengsheng & Hu, Peng & Lin, Qizhao, 2024. "Experimental study on MILD combustion of methane under non-preheated condition in a swirl combustion furnace," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 363(C).
    7. Cai, Junmeng & Wu, Weixuan & Liu, Ronghou, 2014. "An overview of distributed activation energy model and its application in the pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 236-246.
    8. Ni, Zhanshi & Liu, Xiang & Shi, Hao & Tian, Junjian & Yao, Yurou & Hu, Peng & He, Liqun & Meng, Kesheng & Lin, Qizhao, 2024. "Interaction mechanism and pollutant emission characteristics of sewage sludge and corncob co-combustion," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    9. Folgueras, M.B. & Alonso, M. & Díaz, R.M., 2013. "Influence of sewage sludge treatment on pyrolysis and combustion of dry sludge," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 426-435.
    10. Xu, Hao & Cheng, Shuo & Hungwe, Douglas & Yoshikawa, Kunio & Takahashi, Fumitake, 2022. "Co-pyrolysis coupled with torrefaction enhances hydrocarbons production from rice straw and oil sludge: The effect of torrefaction on co-pyrolysis synergistic behaviors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    11. Siddiqi, Hammad & Kumari, Usha & Biswas, Subrata & Mishra, Asmita & Meikap, B.C., 2020. "A synergistic study of reaction kinetics and heat transfer with multi-component modelling approach for the pyrolysis of biomass waste," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    12. Liu, Xiang & Bi, Haobo & Tian, Junjian & Ni, Zhanshi & Shi, Hao & Yao, Yurou & Meng, Kesheng & Wang, Jian & Lin, Qizhao, 2024. "Thermogravimetric analysis of co-combustion characteristics of sewage sludge and bamboo scraps combined with artificial neural networks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    13. Lian, Qingjie & Qi, Ji & Huang, Dabin & Song, Wei & Yuan, Jun, 2025. "Carbon to nitrogen ratio and organic loading rate optimization of sewage sludge and rice straw: Economic analysis and anaerobic digestion process understandings through machine learning," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 330(C).
    14. Huang, Hua-jun & Chang, Yan-chao & Lai, Fa-ying & Zhou, Chun-fei & Pan, Zi-qian & Xiao, Xiao-feng & Wang, Jia-xin & Zhou, Chun-huo, 2019. "Co-liquefaction of sewage sludge and rice straw/wood sawdust: The effect of process parameters on the yields/properties of bio-oil and biochar products," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 140-150.
    15. Syed-Hassan, Syed Shatir A. & Wang, Yi & Hu, Song & Su, Sheng & Xiang, Jun, 2017. "Thermochemical processing of sewage sludge to energy and fuel: Fundamentals, challenges and considerations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 888-913.
    16. Cui, Da & Zhang, Bowen & Wu, Shuang & Xu, Xiangming & Liu, Bin & Wang, Qing & Zhang, Xuehua & Zhang, Jinghui, 2024. "From sewage sludge and lignocellulose to hydrochar by co-hydrothermal carbonization: Mechanism and combustion characteristics," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    17. Wang, Yanlin & Ye, Lei & Chen, Yun & Li, Jingkuan & Bai, Tao & Jin, Zhiping & Jin, Yan, 2024. "Sulfur migration and conversion during co-combustion of sewage sludge and coal slime," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PA).
    18. Liu, Bo & Wan, Sha & Ye, Jianran & Zhao, Hui & Xue, Yongjie & Wang, Teng, 2024. "Effect of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose from biomass on sulfur release behavior from dyeing sludge combustion," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Yanghua & Li, Dequan & Tian, Yuan & Shi, Jinming & Wen, Da & Zhang, Ying & Zhang, Siqi, 2025. "Non-isothermal co-combustion of sludge and coal: Thermal behavior, kinetics and functional group structural analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    2. Yin, Yanshan & Tu, Jun & Wu, Zhiliang & Wang, Tao & Rahman, Md. Maksudur & Shakir, Mohammad & Qing, Mengxia & Chen, Zhijie & Ni, Bing-Jie & Xuan, Yanni & Peng, Zeping & Liu, Liang, 2025. "Thermal characteristics, kinetics mechanism, and sulfur retention of waste tires and goat manure Co-combustion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).
    3. Ma, Junfang & Liu, Jiaxun & Jiang, Xiumin & Zhang, Hai, 2021. "A two-dimensional distributed activation energy model for pyrolysis of solid fuels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    4. Ma, Jiao & Mu, Lan & Zhang, Zhikun & Wang, Zhuozhi & Shen, Boxiong & Zhang, Lei & Li, Aimin, 2020. "The effects of the modification of biodegradation and the interaction of bulking agents on the combustion characteristics of biodried products derived from municipal organic wastes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    5. Ni, Zhanshi & Zhang, Yaokun & Liu, Xiang & Shi, Hao & Yao, Yurou & Tian, Junjian & Hu, Peng & He, Liqun & Lin, Qizhao & Meng, Kesheng, 2024. "Effect of furnace temperature and oxygen concentration on combustion and CO/NO emission characteristics of sewage sludge," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    6. Luo, Juan & Ma, Rui & Lin, Junhao & Sun, Shichang & Gong, Guojin & Sun, Jiaman & Chen, Yi & Ma, Ning, 2023. "Review of microwave pyrolysis of sludge to produce high quality biogas: Multi-perspectives process optimization and critical issues proposal," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    7. Liu, Yali & Zhai, Yunbo & Li, Shanhong & Liu, Xiangmin & Liu, Xiaoping & Wang, Bei & Qiu, Zhenzi & Li, Caiting, 2020. "Production of bio-oil with low oxygen and nitrogen contents by combined hydrothermal pretreatment and pyrolysis of sewage sludge," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    8. Zou, Huihuang & Liu, Chao & Evrendilek, Fatih & He, Yao & Liu, Jingyong, 2021. "Evaluation of reaction mechanisms and emissions of oily sludge and coal co-combustions in O2/CO2 and O2/N2 atmospheres," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 1327-1343.
    9. Andrey Zhuikov & Tatyana Pyanykh & Mikhail Kolosov & Irina Grishina & Yana Zhuikova & Petr Kuznetsov & Stanislav Chicherin, 2025. "Improving Energy Efficiency of Wastewater Residue Biomass Utilisation by Co-Combustion with Coal," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-17, June.
    10. Liu, Taishan & Hao, Rongjiang & Zhang, Xinyang & Xu, Xiaohu & Deng, Shuang & Ding, Guangchao & Li, Songgeng, 2025. "Insight into characteristics and mechanism of CaO-enhanced municipal sewage sludge decoupled combustion for pollutant emissions control," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    11. Chen, Renjie & Yuan, Shijie & Wang, Xiankai & Dai, Xiaohu & Guo, Yali & Li, Chong & Wu, Haibin & Dong, Bin, 2023. "Mechanistic insight into the effect of hydrothermal treatment of sewage sludge on subsequent pyrolysis: Evolution of volatile and their interaction with pyrolysis kinetic and products compositions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    12. Wang, Yanlin & Ye, Lei & Chen, Yun & Li, Jingkuan & Bai, Tao & Jin, Zhiping & Jin, Yan, 2024. "Sulfur migration and conversion during co-combustion of sewage sludge and coal slime," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PA).
    13. Yang, Yantao & Qu, Xia & Huang, Guorun & Ren, Suxia & Dong, Lili & Sun, Tanglei & Liu, Peng & Li, Yanling & Lei, Tingzhou & Cai, Junmeng, 2023. "Insight into lignocellulosic biomass torrefaction kinetics with case study of pinewood sawdust torrefaction," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    14. Xiao, Zhihua & Yuan, Xingzhong & Jiang, Longbo & Chen, Xiaohong & Li, Hui & Zeng, Guangming & Leng, Lijian & Wang, Hou & Huang, Huajun, 2015. "Energy recovery and secondary pollutant emission from the combustion of co-pelletized fuel from municipal sewage sludge and wood sawdust," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 441-450.
    15. Shahbeig, Hossein & Nosrati, Mohsen, 2020. "Pyrolysis of municipal sewage sludge for bioenergy production: Thermo-kinetic studies, evolved gas analysis, and techno-socio-economic assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    16. Wang, Wei & Zhong, Zhaoping & Zheng, Xiang & Ye, Qihang & Li, Yihui & Yang, Yuxuan & Qi, Renzhi, 2025. "Catalytic co-pyrolysis of hydrolyzed lignin and waste tires over NiMo modified HZSM-5/MCM-41 composite molecular sieve in microwave fluidized bed for monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    17. Song, Weiming & Zhou, Jianan & Li, Yujie & Yang, Jian & Cheng, Rijin, 2021. "New technology for producing high-quality combustible gas by high-temperature reaction of dust-removal coke powder in mixed atmosphere," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    18. Wang, Jiong & Mingshen, Jiang & Zhang, Pin & Liu, Qunsheng & Zhang, Shuqing & Wang, Ke & Li, Chong & Cai, Junmeng, 2024. "Elucidating kinetic mechanisms of lignin and biomass pyrolysis by distributed activation energy model with genetic algorithm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    19. Yang, Yantao & Jiang, Mingshen & Song, Lei & Shen, Yilin & Lei, Tingzhou & Cai, Junmeng, 2024. "Systematical analysis and application of distributed activation energy model (DAEM) with Weibull distribution for pyrolysis kinetics of lignocellulosic biomass," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PA).
    20. Siti Zaharah Roslan & Siti Fairuz Zainudin & Alijah Mohd Aris & Khor Bee Chin & Mohibah Musa & Ahmad Rafizan Mohamad Daud & Syed Shatir A. Syed Hassan, 2023. "Hydrothermal Carbonization of Sewage Sludge into Solid Biofuel: Influences of Process Conditions on the Energetic Properties of Hydrochar," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-16, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:335:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225034334. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.