Biomass and RDF Gasification Using Ballistic Heating TGA Analysis

• Published in: Waste and biomass valorization Vol. 5; no. 4; pp. 607 - 623
• Main Authors: Butterman, Heidi C., Castaldi, Marco J., Gelix, Franck, Borrut, David, Nicol, Francois, Lefebvre, Bernard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.08.2014
• Subjects: Engineering; Environment; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Industrial Pollution Prevention; Original Paper; Renewable and Green Energy; Waste Management/Waste Technology; RDF; Waste to energy; Gasification; Biomass; Kinetics; Waste; Mechanism
• ISSN: 1877-2641; 1877-265X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12649-013-9283-2

Rapid heating rates (≥700 °C min −1 ) were utilized to gasify Clean Wood and two refuse derived fuel (RDF) samples using thermogravimetric analysis coupled to gas chromatography (TGA/GC). Reaction atmospheres included Air, 5 % O 2 /95 % Ar, 10 % O 2 /90 % Ar, 100 % Ar and steam and were used to produce gas evolution profiles for hydrocarbons ranging from H 2 to C 4 H 10 . While expected results were obtained using Air reaction atmospheres, some interesting results were observed using steam and Ar. Different concentration profiles and production rates of C 2 H 6 compared to C 2 H 4 and C 2 H 2 enabled some understanding of the reaction sequence occurring during gasification under rapid heating conditions. Kinetic analysis showed pre-exponential factors of 8.00 × 10 27  s −1  K 1/2 for the Clean Wood sample, 2.02 × 10 29  s −1  K 1/2 for sample RDF C (industrial solid waste basis) and 3.71 × 10 23  s −1  K 1/2 for sample A (municipal solid waste basis). Furthermore the apparent activation energy was determined to be 22 kJ mol −1 for Clean Wood, 71 kJ mol −1 for RDF C, and 185 kJ mol −1 ) for A indicating that the Clean Wood is slightly more reactive than RDF C and more reactive than RDF A.