Hydrogen production using plasma gasification with steam injection

Plasma gasification is a promising gasification technology intended at providing sustainable disposal for various wastes. In this work, a process model was developed to simulate the biomass plasma gasification using Aspen Plus simulator. Effects of critical parameters, including gasification temperature, Equivalence Ratio (ER) and Steam-to-Biomass Ratio (SBR) on the composition of fuel gas were discussed. The model is validated against experimental data and found to be in good agreement. The results indicate that low temperatures are more favourable for the production of hydrogen, while high ER has a negative effect on the hydrogen production. The simulation results also demonstrate that steam injection is a key factor to produce more hydrogen rich gas in the SBR range studied, but had a major effect on CO2 formation. The temperature and the SBR show opposite behavior on the syngas LHV, which is attributed to the CO content in the syngas that increases with temperature and decreases with SBR. Results of plasma gasification show similar syngas LHV trends for the three biomasses cases being the higher syngas LHV obtained for vines pruning. These data are crucial to describe scenarios concerning the potential use of biomass as energy source. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.