Hydrogen recovery from the thermal plasma gasification of solid waste

Abstract

Thermal plasma gasification has been demonstrated as one of the most effective and environmentally friendly methods for solid waste treatment and energy utilization in many of studies. Therefore, the thermal plasma process of solid waste gasification (paper mill waste, 1.2 ton/day) was applied for the recovery of high purity H-2 (>99.99%). Gases emitted from a gasification furnace equipped with a nontransferred thermal plasma torch were purified using a bag-filter and wet scrubber. Thereafter, the gases, which contained syngas (CO+H-2), were introduced into a H-2 recovery system, consisting largely of a water gas shift (WGS) unit for the conversion of CO to H-2 and a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit for the separation and purification of H-2. It was successfully demonstrated that the thermal plasma process of solid waste gasification, combined with the WGS and PSA, produced high purity H-2 (20 N m(3)/h (400 H-2-N m(3)/PMW-ton), up to 99.99%) using a plasma torch with 1.6 MWh/PMW-ton of electricity. The results presented here suggest that the thermal plasma process of solid waste gasification for the production of high purity H-2 may provide a new approach as a future energy infrastructure based on H-2. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.