Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) Reactors convert biowaste into Hydrochar, which can then be tumbled into HTC sand for use in concrete and asphalt. See: https://biowastecenter.com/hydrothermal-carbonization/
The world is running out of sand.
Worldwide, we go through 50 billion tons of sand every year. That is twice the amount produced by every river in the world.
After air and water, sand is our most used natural resource. We use it even more than oil. The major player for sand usage is concrete. The concrete required to build a house takes on average 200 tons of sand, a hospital uses 3,000 tons of sand, and a mile of a highway requires 15,000 tons of sand. PLUS: It’s used to make food, wine, toothpaste, glass, computer chips, breast implants, cosmetics, paper, paint, plastics.
The sand that we use, is called “marine sand.” It is the sand that found at the bottom of rivers, and on beaches and at the bottom of lakes and oceans. We can’t use sand from the desert. Wind erosion makes the grains too round for most purposes. We need angular sand that interlocks like pieces to a puzzle. Like the sand generated from mountain rocks, pelted by rain, wind, and rivers for over 25 thousand years.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/world-running-out-sand-resources-concrete-2018-6#:~:text=Concrete%20is%20made%20of%2010,%2Dyup%3A%2075%25%20sand
The Solution: Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) converts the readily available food waste, sewage waste, and animal manure and converts it into Hydrochar, which is then tumbled into sand. In addition to proving the world with needed sand, this HTC process has the very positive environmental results of reducing the adverse impact on reverbed ecology from mining sand and the sequestration of CO2e. Given that the biowaste HTC sand is buried in materials like concrete and roads the biowaste does not emitting greenhouse gases though the biodegradation process. We “capture” the Co2e before it gets into the air.
BIOWASTE CENTER has identified two primary customer silos.
Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) is the underlying technology.
#1: HTC Sand is the result of the biowaste conversion. The customers for the HTC Sand include concrete and asphalt producers. Sand is a significant “ingredient” in concrete, often accounting for 40% of the mix. With infrastructure improvement and new construction projects in the U.S. and around the world, concrete is incesing in demand along with the sand that is such and integral part of its production.
#2: HTC Reactors convert the biowaste into hydrochar, which is then tumbled into sand. The customers for the HTC Reactors include Landfill operators, municipal Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) operators, as well as large Military Bases. The order of magnitude to “fill” the annual loading capacity of an HTC Reactor is between 15,000 and 16,666 tons of biowaste per year. The population needed to fully utilize a single HTC reactor for food waste is approximately 150,000 people.
Support Information:
Supermarkets are responsible for 10% of all U.S. food waste – that’s 43 billion pounds annually. There are 38,307 supermarkets in the U.S. 43 billion lbs / 38,307 = 1,122,510 lbs on average of food waste per supermarket. In tonnage, this is (1,122,510 lbs / 2,000) = 561 tons per supermarket per year. Each HTC reactor can process 16,666 tons of Food Waste. The processing can service the Food Waste on average (16,666 tons / 561 tons) from 29.7 supermarkets. Rounding this up to 30 supermarkets, this analysis includes the coverage area relative to the U.S. population. Supermarket and grocery stores typically service about 5,000 people. To operate each HTC reactor to its capacity, they would need to go in markets that have at least 150,000 residences with the HTC reactor ideally located so that it is central or not more than a half hour drive (20 miles) to reduce the transit time for the waste management companies.
Co-locating the HTC reactors on-site at existing landfills is one strategy to streamline the existing waste trucking logistics. There are over 1,250 landfill facilities located in the United States, with the majority in Southern and Midwestern United States. The South is home to 491 landfills, and the West has 328 landfills. The HTC reactor is only the size of a 40’ shipping container, but land for dumping and processing is required with about 2 acres of space if co-location, such as at landfill sites is not adopted.