Separation of biocrude produced from hydrothermal liquefaction of faecal sludge without any solvent

In this study faecal sludge is used as raw biomass due to its abundance, low cost, and easy availability. After HTL operation, product separation is getting challenging. Current developed studies observed the separation of aqueous and biocrude oil products occurs during the HTL process more popularly with the use of an organic solvent which is quite expensive. Focusing on this critical issue, this study aims to separate the biocrude and aqueous phase without using any solvent by gravity separation technique. From FTIR analysis data it showed that centrifuged at 6000 rpm partial separation of biocrude and aqueous phase (AP) was noticed. however, at 9000 rpm, FTIR analysis showed that biocrude samples included aliphatic hydrocarbons, phenols, and esters where no signs of any carbon chain were found at AP which indicated the products are successfully separated. The separated Crude portion had the higher A-Factor (0.68) and lower C-Factor (0.58) value which indicates the oil quality was immature grade of lower kerogen type II (i.e., moderate oil-prone). This low-cost technique can be economically advantageous for commercial-scale biocrude production.