Tar removal during the fluidized bed gasification of plastic waste.
A recycled polyethylene was fed in a pilot plant bubbling fluidized bed gasifier, having an internal diameter of 0.381 m and a maximum feeding capacity of 90 kg/h. The experimental runs were carried out under various operating conditions: the bed temperature was kept at about 850 degrees C, the equivalence ratio varied between 0.2 and 0.35, the amount of bed material was between 131 and 215 kg, the fluidizing velocity was between 0.5 and 0.7 m/s, quartz sand and olivine were used as bed material, and air and steam were used as fluidizing reactants. The results confirm that the tar removal treatments applied inside the gasifier (primary methods) can eliminate or strongly reduce the need for a further downstream cleanup of the syngas. In particular, the utilization of a natural olivine as an in situ tar reduction agent remarkably improves the quality of the product gas, in terms of both high hydrogen volumetric fraction and larger syngas yield.
Arena
Umberto
U
Department of Environmental Sciences, Second University of Naples, Via Antonio Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy. umberto.arena@unina2.it
Zaccariello
Lucio
L
Mastellone
Maria Laura
ML
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry*; D005740:Gases; D017745:Incineration / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D020959:Polyethylene / Q000737:chemistry*; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D013638:Tars / Q000737:chemistry*
D000393:Air Pollutants; D005740:Gases; D013638:Tars; D020959:Polyethylene