HIGH TEMPERATURE STEAM GASIFICATION OF SOLID WASTES: CHARACTERISTICS AND KINETICS

Abstract

Greater use of renewable energy sources is of pinnacle importance especially with the limited reserves of fossil fuels. It is expected that future energy use will have increased utilization of different energy sources, including biomass, municipal solid wastes, industrial wastes, agricultural wastes and other low grade fuels. Gasification is a good practical solution to solve the growing problem of landfills, with simultaneous energy extraction and nonleachable minimum residue. Gasification also provides good solution to the problem of plastics and rubber in to useful fuel.

The characteristics and kinetics of syngas evolution from the gasification of different samples is examined here. The characteristics of syngas based on its quality, distribution of chemical species, carbon conversion efficiency, thermal efficiency and hydrogen concentration has been examined. Modeling the kinetics of syngas evolution from the process is also examined. Models are compared with the experimental results.

Experimental results on the gasification and pyrolysis of several solid wastes, such as, biomass, plastics and mixture of char based and plastic fuels have been provided. Differences and similarities in the behavior of char based fuel and a plastic sample has been discussed. Global reaction mechanisms of char based fuel as well polystyrene gasification are presented based on the characteristic of syngas evolution.

The mixture of polyethylene and woodchips gasification provided superior results in terms of syngas yield, hydrogen yield, total hydrocarbons yield, energy yield and apparent thermal efficiency from polyethylene-woodchips blends as compared to expected weighed average yields from gasification of the individual components. A possible interaction mechanism has been established to explain the synergetic effect of co-gasification of woodchips and polyethylene.

Kinetics of char gasification is presented with special consideration of sample temperature, catalytic effect of ash, geometric changes of pores inside char and diffusion limitations inside and outside the char particle.