Hydrogen production from municipal solid waste via oxygen–steam gasification for a Riyadh application: process simulation, sensitivity analysis, and techno-economic screening

This study develops an Aspen Plus thermodynamic screening framework for hydrogen production from municipal solid waste (MSW) in a Riyadh application through oxygen–steam gasification, staged water–gas shift (WGS), surrogate contaminant removal, and surrogate pressure swing adsorption (PSA). MSW was represented on an as-received basis using literature-derived proximate and ultimate analyses. Gasification was modeled using an equilibrium reactor coupled adiabatically to decomposition, with the industrial-purity oxidant flow solved for the target temperature. The 100 kg h −1 reference case produced 6.775 kg h −1 of product hydrogen (67.75 kg H 2 per metric ton of as-received MSW). Hydrogen production decreased across the 10–60 kg h −1 steam sweep at 900 °C. Response-surface analysis of 15 distinct simulations ranked 25 kg h −1 steam, an 800 °C gasifier temperature, and a 180 °C low-temperature WGS temperature highest within the studied domain; two cases excluded from regression showed interpolation errors below 0.074 %. A comparison case at 27 kg h −1 steam, 800 °C and 180 °C (Case A) produced 7.083 kg h −1 hydrogen, with specific compressor work of 5.911 kWh kg-H 2 −1 and an oxidant demand of 36.841 kg h −1 . A 1200 °C refuse-derived fuel benchmark with reconstructed steam input reproduced four major wet-gas fractions within 0.76 percentage points. Two fluidized-bed comparisons at 850 °C showed substantial departures in gas ratios, and hydrogen yields at 800–900 °C remain unvalidated. Under three capital scenarios, the preliminary minimum hydrogen selling price for Case A was US$4.10–5.51 kg-H 2 −1 . The results define conditional operating trade-offs and priorities for local feed characterization, kinetic, separation, heat-integration, and equipment-level studies.