Syngas Production From Refuse-Derived Fuel Through Gasification Simulation for a Fuel Cell System

The global desire for alternative energy and energy sustainability continues to dominate the quest for energy resource research. The path of waste-to-energy technology is a viable alternative approach to address the demand and reduce the burden of solid wastes. This study investigated the viability of production of hydrogen-rich syngas from domestic waste-municipal solid waste (MSW) gasification for a fuel cell system. The pretreatment of MSW was performed to produce Refuse-derived Fuel (RDF) to improve energy density and high heating value (HHV). The simulation was carried out with Aspen plus model for RDF gasification to predict the RDF gasification behavior under various operating parameters-equivalent ratio (ER), temperature, and steam flowrate (SFR), in an air-blown downdraft gasifier. The HHV of RDFs was between 18.17 MJ/kg and 28.91 MJ/kg, with energy density increasing from 4142.07 MJ/m3 to 10735.80 MJ/m3. Optimum SFR values for various RDFs were determined to be within these values 2.80, 2.50 and 3.50 and optimum ER values for RDFs were also determined to be within these values 0.15, 0.04, and 0.08. These conditions produced the desired high molar ratio of H2/CO yield in the syngas mixture in the product stream. The molar ratios of H2/CO yield in the syngas mixture in the product stream for all the RDFs were between 18.81 and 20.16. The values of H2/CO satisfy the requirement for fuel cell application.