The Digest’s 2024 Multi-Slide Guide to Catalytic Upgrading of Carbohydrates in Waste Streams to Hydrocarbons

Paper sludge typically taken to landfills (50%), incinerated (20%) or spread on land as soil enhancement (10%). In total, there’s 8 million wet tonnes (4MT dry) of paper sludge that costs $240 million each year to truck and landfill. In this project , researchers propose to develop a technology for converting the carbohydrates in paper sludge into a hydrocarbon biofuel, both economically and sustainably. Sunkyu Park, of North Carolina State, Ashutosh Mittal of NREL and Yuan Yao of Yale gave this presentation on the project at DOE Project Peer Review.