Plasmatron gasification of biomass lignocellulosic waste materials derived from municipal solid waste

The aim of this work is to study the feasibility and operational performance of plasmatron (plasma torch) gasification of municipal solid waste mixed with raw wood (MSW/RW) derived from the pretreatment of Steam Mechanical Heat Treatment (SMHT), as the target material (MRM). A 10 kW plasmatron reactor is used for gasification of the MRM. The production of syngas (CO and H-2) is the major component, and almost 90% of the gaseous products appear in 2 min of reaction time, with relatively high reaction rates. The syngas yield is between 88.59 and 91.84 vol%, and the recovery mass ratio of syngas from MRM is 45.19 down to 27.18 wt% with and without steam with the energy yields of 59.07-111.89%. The concentrations of gaseous products from the continuous feeding of 200 g/h are stable and higher than the average concentrations of the batch feeding of 10 g. The residue from the plasmatron gasification with steam is between 0 and 4.52 wt%, with the inorganic components converted into non-leachable vitrified lava, which is non-hazardous. The steam methane reforming reaction, hydrogasification reaction and Boudouard reaction all contribute to the increase in the syngas yield. It is proved that MSW can be completely converted into bioenergy using SMHT, followed by plasmatron gasification. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.