Feasibility evaluation of municipal solid waste (MSW), pecan shell and cotton gin trash co-gasification for decentralized hydrogen enriched syngas production

With growing interest in energy resiliency and effective waste management, biomass and municipal solid waste (MSW) have emerged as valuable feedstocks for thermochemical conversion processes that produce energy-dense fuels, enhancing national energy security. Gasification offers a flexible and efficient pathway for converting waste materials and solid residues into syngas for power generation, fuel synthesis, and hydrogen recovery. However, its performance depends on feedstock properties, gasifying agents, and operating conditions. This study investigates the co-gasification of MSW, pecan shells (PS), and cotton gin trash (CGT) in a fluidized bed gasifier using Aspen Plus simulation. A co-gasification blend of 60% MSW, 30% PS, and 10% CGT was selected based on regional availability and fuel characteristics. The model explores ranges of operating temperatures, supply of oxygen, steam, carbon dioxide, and their blends as gasifying agents at 1 bar pressure. The novelty of this work lies in evaluating a region-specific ternary MSW-biomass blend over a multi-agent operating window. The optimal condition was selected through a balanced assessment of hydrogen production, syngas lower heating value (LHV), carbon conversion efficiency (CCE), and cold gas efficiency (CGE). The optimal combination of equivalence ratio (ER) of 0.18, steam-to-biomass ratio of 0.3, and carbon dioxide-to-biomass ratio of 0.2 balanced hydrogen production and syngas calorific value. Under this condition, the syngas LHV was 7.8 MJ/Nm 3 for the co-gasification case. The co-gasification blend stayed at an intermediate position compared to individual feedstocks, achieving a CCE of 91.21% and a CGE of 62.06%. The model predictions aligned with published co-gasification studies, demonstrating the feasibility of MSW-biomass co-gasification for clean energy production and providing insight for optimizing gasifying-agent composition and fluidized-bed gasifier design for complex, heterogeneous feedstocks.