Patent ID: 7909895

Claim:
A process of converting biosolids into a fuel comprising the steps of: providing biosolids comprising cells and cell-bound water; applying sufficient pressure to the biosolids at an inlet of a continuous flow system to maintain liquidity of the biosolids; heating the pressurized biosolids in the continuous flow system to a first temperature sufficient to rupture cells and thereby free the cell-bound water to form a slurry of ruptured biosolids cells, and then to a second temperature sufficient to carbonize the slurry of ruptured biosolids cells to form a char slurry; depressurizing the char slurry at an outlet of the continuous flow system; removing at least a portion of the freed cell-bound water from the char slurry to provide an at least partially dewatered ruptured biosolids product; and producing a dried product by thermally drying the at least partially dewatered ruptured biosolids product to remove a further portion of the freed cell-bound water.