Simulation studies on the co-production of syngas and activated carbon from waste tyre gasification using different reactor configurations

Gasification is one of the most efficient thermo-chemical conversion processes for transforming waste tyres into syngas and high-valued solid carbon products such as activated carbon (AC). This study evaluated the coproduction of syngas and AC in three reactor configurations: fluidized bed, fixed bed, and rotary kiln at the systems level. A single-stage steam gasification and char activation process was simulated using Aspen Plus V10 software. The effects of gasification parameters such as equivalence ratio (ER) and steam-to-fuel ratio (SFR) were investigated and compared. The best conditions for the co-production of syngas and AC in the reactors were evaluated and compared. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) computational analysis was used to predict the surface area of the AC. The fluidized bed gasifier has the potential to produce syngas with a low heating value (LHV) of 6.67 MJ/Nm(3), cold gas efficiency (CGE) of 82.4%LHV, AC with BET surface area of 698.63 m(2)/g and a carbon conversion ratio (CCR) of 92.5%, the fixed bed gasifier has a syngas LHV of 6.25 MJ/Nm(3), CGE of 85.9%LHV, AC with BET surface area of 432.51 m(2)/g and CCR of 97.3% and the rotary kiln gasifier has a syngas LHV of 5.96 MJ/Nm(3), CGE of 74%LHV, AC with BET surface area of 661.73 m(2)/g and CCR of 93%.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the co-production efficiency of syngas and activated carbon in different reactor configurations, finding the fluidized bed gasifier to be the most effective. The surface area of activated carbon was predicted using BET computational analysis. The fluidized bed gasifier showed the highest performance in producing both syngas and activated carbon.