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Thermal Engineering Department, CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur 713209, India
Mechanical Department, GDGWI-Lancaster University, India
a r t i c l e
i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 19 February 2014
Received in revised form 5 May 2014
Accepted 12 May 2014
Available online 7 June 2014
The 21st century earth is a new world, with numerous urban areas, exponentially growing population, global
warming, global markets and with it, increased consumerism which has led us to amass huge amounts of municipal solid waste (MSW). This waste is difcult to manage using conventional methods and is ever increasing,
blocking essential space that has become an expensive commodity in today's world. Conventional techniques
such as combustion/incineration have been the conventionally preferred method of waste management for several nations in lieu of land-lling, releasing toxic emissions onto an already over polluted environment. In this
paper we shall explore a novel MSW management technology in the form of plasma torches and thermal plasma
treatment that enables us to reduce waste density by as much as 95%, without any toxic emissions, while producing a synthetic gas as by-product. Synthetic gas or syngas is presently being used to generate energy. Some researchers are also exploring the possibility of hydrogen extraction through this route. This paper discusses the
current limitations of this technology and highlights a few researches that are being conducted around the
world that may soon take this concept from technical feasibility to practical reality.
2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Thermal plasma
MSW
Syngas
Contents
1.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.
MSW . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2.
Plasma . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.
Plasma generators (torches)
2.
Thermal plasma treatment of MSW
2.1.
Plasma gasication & industry
2.2.
Plasma gasication: future .
3.
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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1. Introduction
Since the beginning of industrial revolution in the 18th century there
has been a steady growth in urban population as more people from rural
areas were migrating into cities to be part of a revolution that would
provide people with jobs, food and clothing. This was the beginning of
the creation of an urban consumer market. The concept of consumerism
Corresponding author at: Principal Scientist Thermal Engineering Department CSIRCentral Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) M.G. Avenue, Durgapur713209 India. Tel.: +91-343-6452156.
E-mail address: biswajitruj@yahoo.co.in (B. Ruj).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuproc.2014.05.011
0378-3820/ 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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298
299
299
300
302
303
304
306
307
307
grew with the development of new technologies that gave people access to a variety of products in huge quantities with substantially consistent quality and by 1939 the concept of consumerism grew on a global
scale as more countries such as Germany, France and the USA, following
the example of the British Empire, had rapidly developed their industrial capabilities. The end of the Second World War and the rise of the USA
as a new superpower, saw a new form of consumerismthe consumption of products in huge quantities, not just limited to those that are
considered essentials to fuel economic growth [1].
The growth of consumerism meant that the supply of products
must be unhindered. Industry grew and along with it the demand for labour. The World Health Organisation reports that in the beginning of
the 20th century, 20% of the population dwelled in urban areas, by 1990
that number rose to a little less than 40% and is expected to rise to a
staggering 70% by 2050. These statistics show that there is a growing
trend in people migrating into urban areas for better job, lifestyle and
livelihood [2]. The increase in urban population and the steady rise in
consumption have adverse effects on the environment such as rapid
global population increase (currently the global population stands at
7.2 billion people and rising as per United Nation's Department of Economic and Social Affairs [3]) and the generation of huge quantities of
municipal solid waste (MSW) is increasing along with the increasing
numbers of urban dwellers (Table. 1). While most countries do not
regard population increase as an immediate threat, the excessive accumulation of MSW has led to major concerns in the developed and developing nations [4,6] as conventional methods [4,810] are not able
to effectively dispose off the waste at rates at which they are being
generated. While MSW recycling is essential it is dependent on the
government's motivation to take the necessary measures to promote
awareness. However the generation of waste will continue to grow
making it essential for us to formulate a solution to effectively manage
waste regardless of geographical or income of a country, factors that
play an important role.
Accumulation of waste results in decomposition and harmful emission of gases and some methods of storage require large tracts of land
which are becoming increasingly valuable with increase in population.
The World Bank reports that there are presently three billion urban residents generating 1.2 kg per person per day of MSW and that number is
projected to grow to 4.3 billion urban residents generating 1.42 kg per
person per day of MSW by 2025 [4]. Hence an unconventional yet effective solution is required which can be found in the form of thermal plasma pyrolysis which this paper seeks to explore.
1.1. MSW
MSW has various compositions, varying from region to region,
country to country and from people to people based on their income,
lifestyle/culture, climate, energy sources and economic afuence. Developing countries such as India and China, with a rapidly growing urban
population, produce MSW which is mostly organic in nature, such as
food scraps, wood, leaves, and process residues from farms whereas developed countries with a wealthier population show higher consumptions in inorganic materials such as plastic, paper, metal, and e-wastes [4].
E-wastes are essentially discarded electronic appliances such as
computers, cellular devices, televisions or components such as discarded
mother boards, and processors (this may consist of carcinogenic heavy
metals such as lead, mercury, chromium, which dees other forms of
processing and may enter our food cycle through water and soil contamination, if not treated/neutralised effectively), due to e-waste high degree of mercury contamination can be expected in MSW [5].
The MSW composition cannot be simply categorised as organic and
inorganic wastes. Industrial wastes, mostly inorganic such as plastic,
299
Table 1
MSW Generation by country [4].
Current available data
Country
Urban population
India
China
USA
Russia
United Kingdom
France
Germany
Brazil
Israel
South Korea
Japan
321,623,271
511,722,970
241,972,393
107,386,402
54,411,080
47,192,398
60,530,216
144,507,175
5,179,120
38,895,504
84,330,180
109,589
520,548
624,700
100,027
97,342
90,493
127,816
149,096
10,959
48,397
144,466
538,055,000
822,209,000
305,091,000
96,061,000
59,738,000
53,659,000
61,772,000
206,850,000
8,077,000
41,783,000
86,460,000
376,639
1,397,755
701,709
120,076
110,515
107,318
126,633
330,960
16,962
58,496
146,982
300
Direct Current
discharge
Thermal/Equilibrium
Radio Frequency
discharge
Low temperature
Corona discharge
(cold plasma)
Non-thermal/Nonequilibrium
Plasma
High temperature
Laser fusion
plasma / Hot
plasma
Micro Wave
plasma (warm
plasma)
301
Working
gas
Cathode
Water
Jacket
Type: Direct Current Plasma torch.
Plasma jet
Anode
Cathode
Water
Jacket
melting of electrodes.
Anode
Temperature: 3000-8000K.
Electrode erosion: No erosion takes place.
Heat sinking: Cooling water flowing inside the coil
Ignition of plasma: Difficult
Volume of plasma: Medium
Efficiency of power supply device: 40-70%
Influence of solid feeding on plasma stability:
Yes.
sputtering where the discharged ions and atoms from the plasma gas
collide with cathode surface causing the release of secondary electrons
and some atoms from the cathode which later either deposits along
the circular anode surface or passes through the opening, along with
the arc and contaminates the reactants. Due to this phenomenon the
cathodes have a denite life span and require time-bound replacements
which increase maintenance cost and frequency of maintenance. In addition, more than 50% of electrical energy fed into thermal plasma is
wasted through cooling water which is necessary for stable arc operation. Otherwise, metallic electrodes are readily corroded or melted.
This is the major drawback that results in the energy efciency of thermal plasma to be poor.
In the case of an RF inductively coupled discharges of thermal plasma, which is being increasingly considered as their design prevents
any contact between the plasma gas and the electrodes, the energy necessary to generate the plasma is provided by the RF induction coils and
allows the feed to be injected directly through the plasma region [9],
302
Fig. 3. However there are certain limitations to this type of plasma torch
which are shown in Fig. 3.
2. Thermal plasma treatment of MSW
Thermal plasma treatment has certain unique advantages, based on
the plasma properties mentioned earlier, that have prompted researchers to investigate extensively on MSW and other hazardous
wastes such as medical wastes, believing it to be the most feasible solution to the impending and escalating waste management crisis [16].
1. Thermal plasmas can be used to treat all kinds of waste streams, be it
solid such as regular MSWs, liquid such as urine or poisonous gases.
2. Due to the high temperature and high energy density generated by
thermal plasma, we can accommodate a large throughput with a
small scale reactor.
3. The high ux densities generated by the plasma at the reactor
boundaries lead to a rapid attainment of steady state conditions, effectively reducing the start-up and shutdown times.
4. The reactors do not require any oxidants to produce the heat source
since we are relying on plasma and not the combustion of conventional fuels; therefore a small volume of gas is produced which
makes the entire process much more manageable and cost effective
as well as environmentally friendly as the emissions of CO2, which
is a greenhouse gas and a major concern related to global warming,
are much lower than accepted levels.
5. The steep thermal gradient that exists in these reactors allows for
quenching process which is benecial when trying to recover monomers from polymer wastes as described by H. Huang, and L. Tang in [9].
Thermal plasma treatment exists effectively in two forms.
a. Plasma pyrolysis
b. Plasma gasication
Plasma pyrolysis is the decomposition of any given feed by gasication in an oxygen starved environment where as plasma gasication
involves the addition of limited amounts of oxygen and steam. In
both processes plasma is the sole source of heat. No combustion takes
place and the end result is the production of synthetic gas (syngas),
composed pre-dominantly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, although
certain percentage of carbon dioxide and hydrochloric acid are present,
along with vitried slag which contains molten form of all the inorganic
components such as metal scrap present in the MSW feed along with
any residual toxic components in inert form. The output products
from conventional gasication units are similar to those from plasma
gasication/pyrolysis, however the syngas produced from plasma
gasication/pyrolysis is cleaner, devoid of huge quantities of soot,
char, tar and toxic gases such as oxides of sulphur or nitrogen or pathogens, from medical wastes. Conventional gasier and incinerators,
where MSW is combusted in excess of oxygen, due to low operating
temperatures of 400 to 800 C, cannot break down all the materials at
molecular level. It becomes essential to include several stages of scrubbers to clean the produced gas thereby increasing the processing cost.
Another drawback is that conventional gasiers cannot process heterogeneous wastes such as MSW and will require pre-sorting, further
adding to the processing cost [10,16,27].
There is a difference between plasma pyrolysis and gasication; the
gasication of MSW or any biomass using plasma yields two products,
syngas and vitried slag, Fig. 4, the quantity of which can be controlled
by us, an added advantage. The gasication of MSW in zero oxygen environment will provide us with low yield of gas and higher yield of
vitried slag. To increase the syngas yield we need to introduce the controlled amounts of steam and oxygen. Either of the products has benecial application, the slag produced can be processed to extract metals or
used in construction site where as the syngas produced has a signicant
caloric value and can be used for power generation [10,11,13,24] or for
extraction of pure hydrogen which is foreseen as the future alternative
to fossil fuels, prompting researchers such as Y. Byun et al. to perfect an
extraction technique which will complement plasma gasication units,
providing a system with MSW as input and pure hydrogen as output
[26].
Several researchers have conducted experiments on biomass gasication using thermal plasma to obtain data necessary to understand the
thermodynamic process taking place within a plasma furnace, to determine the composition of the syngas obtained and to test its caloric
value so as to understand the feasibility of the process as a waste to energy converter. G. Van Oost et al. [24] using crushed wood as a model
substance and a novel gaswater stabilized plasma torch developed
and patented by IPP-ASCR, Prague, were able to study the effects of variable feed rate, plasma gas ow rate and the introduction of CO2 on the
gasication process and were able to determine that even at low plasma
ow rates a proper mixing of the reactants and plasma is possible and
more intense mixing is possible at high feed rates. They were also able
to procure data on the effects of the presence of oxygen and CO2 on plasma gasication. Similarly, A. Vaidyanathan et al. [25] have simulated
solid waste gasication using plasma to produce syngas using two
types of feeds: 1) carpet wastes containing polyester, polyethylene,
nylon bres, and styrene butadiene polymers, and 2) wastes procured
from a military base which consisted mostly of paper towels, aluminium
cans, bread, oor mating, tyres, PVC tubes plastic bags, and soft drink
bottles. The syngas percentage obtained towards the end of the experiment, its composition and the predicted thermal power value, for carpet
waste came to 23.533.5 kW whereas for waste from military base was
Fig. 4. Block diagram showing the end products of plasma gasication/vitrication process in a waste to energy plant [25].
27.541 kW. A. Vaidyanathan et al. concluded, based on the results obtained, that the experiment was not successful as efciency was not
optimised and the amount of gas obtained gave a heating value much
lower than the 90 kW power supplied to the torch. However it is expected that with certain modications in the process such as longer processing time and improved feed delivery system can provide better results.
The conclusion drawn by A. Vaidyanathan et al. has highlighted an
essential problem that exists with several researchers who have
attempted to simulate successful experiments related to plasma gasication, to replicate the data and to device new experiments based on
that data. While some researchers are successful at replication, they
nd several complications while contemplating and executing new experiments. These complications can only be removed by trial and error
methods through repeated experimentation. The essential problem is
that plasma based experimentation is a time consuming and costly process, as operating a plasma torch requires huge amounts of electricity.
This often limits the number of experiment capabilities a researcher
can conduct, due to budget constraints within which they all operate.
Plasma gasication is a thermo-chemical process and the plasma furnace is the central part of the process within which several chemical conversions take place that can be dened by the following formulas [27]:
C(s) + H2O = CO + H2 [heterogeneous water gas shift reaction
endothermic]
C(s) + CO2 = 2CO [Boudouard equilibriumendothermic]
C(s) + 2H2 = CH4 [hydrogenation gasicationexothermic]
CH4 + H2O = CO + 3H2 [methane decompositionendothermic]
CO + H2O = CO2 + H2 [water gas shift reactionexothermic].
These chemical conversions are the basis of an equilibrium model
designed by A. Mountouris et al. [27] to aid the researcher in predicting
the performance of a plasma gasication process, called the GasifEq.
This model has been created using recent thermodynamic data taken
from various sources such as National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) and Design Institute for Physical Properties (DIPPR) considering all operational parameters such as moisture content, oxygen
amount, and gasication temperature and deduce its effects on the
composition of the syngas produced as well as providing the energy
and energy efciency analysis. The model GasifEq is a possible solution
to the problems that researchers such as A. Vaidyanathan et al. have
faced, by predicting the optimum operational conditions required and
the corresponding syngas composition, for operational parameters set
by the researchers thereby resulting in greater experimental success
and creating avenues for further research to improve efciency of the
processes as well as discovering more effective process techniques
and process variables.
303
Fig. 5. Shows the effects of moisture and different components on the caloric value of
MSW, extract from [29].
MSW storage
unit
Magnetic
seperator &
Crusher
Hydraulic
feeder
Integrated
Furnace
Steam
generators
Bag filters
Water
quencher
Scrubber
Secondary
Combustion
chamber
S
t
a
c
k
Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the pilot plant for thermal plasma treatment of MSW [23].
304
quencher which rapidly cools the gas to 303 K with 40% NaOH solution
following which a scrubber (pH 9 maintained) removes any remaining
acidic gases that might be present. The syngas is nally burned in a
secondary combustion chamber, where the temperature is maintained
at 1173 K and the output gas (syngas) is passed through an air preheater/gas cooler. The air pre-heater/gas cooler collects the air from
MSW storage unit and heated using the output gas (syngas) from the
secondary combustion chamber, to raise its temperature to 873 K (output gas temperature reduces to 473 K). The output gas (syngas) is then
stored in a stack.
Y. Byun et al. have concluded that their setup has been successful
in producing syngas with little or no trace of any poisonous or
hazardous gases, as shown in Table 2, the power consumption is
1.14 MWh/MSW-ton [thermal plasma torch (0.817 MWh/MSW-ton) +
utilities (0.322 MWh/MSW-ton)] and the amount of LPG used to preheat the furnace is 7.37 Nm3/MSW-ton, respectively. The authors
conclude that the recoverable electricity from the syngas produced is
only 0.79MWh/MSW-ton, assuming that the Integrated Gasication
Combined Cycle (IGCC) has an efciency of up to 35%. This is due to
the fact that there are excess of heat loss in several sections of the
IGCC such as the steam generator where it is estimated that 70% of
the input energy of the gas from the furnace was lost as the heat generated was not reused. Y. Byun et al. believe that by increasing the MSW
capacity and re-using the heat lost at the steam generator, the process
can be made more economically viable.
In order to make plasma gasication industrially effective many
companies have tried to combine traditional gasication with plasma
torches, such as Europlasma and Plasco, using DC plasma torches
to clean the gas produced from auto-gasiers before introducing them
to several scrubbers, then to a Gas engine optimised to use syngas as
fuel, to generate electricity; another company called InEnTec, proposed
the concept of Plasma Enhanced Melter (PEM) which combined the
concepts of plasma gasication and glass melting technologies. The
technology composed of three components, a downdraft pre-gasier,
a PEM process vessel and a thermal residence chamber. The MSW is
fed into the pre-gasier which is responsible for the gasication of
80% of the waste to syngas, while the remainder is processed in the
PEM vessel attached to the gasier. The PEM vessel uses a DC powered
plasma arc and an AC powered resistance heating system, to reduce the
load on the transferred arc. The inorganic materials are vitried in the
form of a slag and are collected. The design, although innovative, was
unable to reduce emissions as opposed to a classic grate combustion
plant [6].
C. Ducharme in [6] has done a comprehensive review of all the
present industrial scale plasma assisted waste to energy (WTE) processes including one process developed by Alter Nrg using torches and
cupola designed by Westinghouse Plasma Corporation (WPC), which
is an effective plasma gasication unit that can process MSW directly
without any pre-sorting or pre-gasication, and the syngas produced
is then used to generate electricity using customised turbines. This
setup is very similar to the experimental setup by Y. Byun et al., Fig. 6.
The cost analysis in this report indicates that the model proposed
by Alter Nrg/WPC is benecial for processing MSW, provided they
Table 2
Composition of syngass output from the integrated furnace in [23].
CO2 (%)
CO (%)
O2 (%)
H2 (%)
HCL (ppm)
THC (ppm)
SOX (ppm)
NOX (ppm)
N2 (ppm)
PCDDs/DFs (NG-TEQ/Nm3)
9.9 3.0
14.2 4.5
0.4 0.2
10.4 3
0.5 0.4
23.2 5.2
Not detected
Not detected
Not detected
1.04 0.75
The most important factor that affects the viability of a project is the
technology that is being implemented. While the technology currently
being pursued by the industry is environmentally viable and barely
meeting the operation cost, researchers are looking into alternate technology in line with thermal plasma technology that can address the cost
factor by increasing the process efciency and units of power generated.
One such alternate technology is being experimented in Israel by Q.
Zhang et al. [31,32], called Plasma Gasication Melting (PGM) where
MSW gasication and plasma melting of the residues from the gasication are achieved in a single moving-bed counter current up-draft gasier in a continuous one-step process. The process involves feeding of
air into the melting chamber of the reactor by the plasma torches
which are placed at the bottom of the reactor. The air enters at high
speed and high temperature in the form of plasma jet which effectively
melts the inorganic components of the waste and the air with its residual heat mixes with steam, which is injected through the side walls. This
305
Fig. 7. The Alter Nrg/WPC plasma gasication waste to energy plant: schematic diagram of proposed Integrated Gasication Combined Cycle (IGCC), extract from [6].
Availability
Number of commercial plants
Pilot plant
Feedstock
Oxidant
Energy for plasma torches
(kWh per ton MSW)
Composition of syngas with MSW
%CO
%CO2
%N2
%H2
%CH4
%H2S
%HCL
%H2O
Economics ($ per ton of MSW)
Net power out (kWh)
Capital cost
Labour cost
Variable cost
Sale power
Sale slag/metals
Net benet ($)
Classic combustion
Gasication
Westinghouse Plasma
Corporation (WPC)
InEntec
Europlasma
Plasco
90%
4
1
MSW
Air
115.2
90%
0
0
MSW + lime + met coke
Enriched oxygen
133
90%
0
2
MSW
Enriched oxygen
NA
90%
90%
0
1
MSW
Enriched oxygen
34
MSW/industrial waste
Air/CO2
NA
NA
WTE
500
60
10
28.80
50
2.25
19.05
41%
13.80%
NA
33.70%
4.10%
0.13%
0.13%
6.30%
Base plant assumptions
533
76.8
10
43
53.3
2.47
8.68
31.50%
8.33%
12.10%
16.20%
1.00%
0.02%
0.03%
29.20%
WPC
617
81
10
32
61.7
2.47
6.72
41.40%
16.60%
5.60%
34.80%
0.10%
NA
0.00%
1.50%
InEntec
450
76.8
10
43
40
2.47
16.98
41%
4%
14%
33%
NA
NA
NA
8%
Europlasma
500
86
10
53
50
2.47
30.98
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Plasco
533
96
10
43
53.3
2.47
30.15
306
Fig. 8. Schematic diagram showing the PGM process model, extract from [32].
The basic concept of IPGFC is to combine a conventional plasma gasication reactor (PGR) along with an alternate power generation system,
which is signicantly more efcient than the conventional turbine systems that are being currently implemented in industrial projects. This
system involves the integration of the PGR with a high temperature
fuel cell, particularly the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The SOFC operates
on the concept that a fuel cell would have oxide ion conducting electrolyte which would permit the transference of oxide ions from the cathode to the anode where it would react with the fuel. In this process
the fuel being syngas sourced from the PGR, and generate power,
Fig. 9. The cathode is fed with air, pre-heated using heat source from
the combustion chamber present in the Fuel Cell Unit. The combustion
chamber is responsible for the incineration of the gas that the fuel cell
ejects during its operation. Heat is transferred through the exhaust
gases to the Steam Turbine Unit. G. Galeno et al. state that the benet
of this system is that it efciently uses any excess heat, from the syngas
produced by the PGR in the Plasma Gasication Unit, to the exhaust gas
from the combustion chamber in the Fuel Cell Unit, by transferring it
onto water through heat exchangers, converting it to steam and using
it to operate a steam turbine hence generating more power. Also the
gas ejected from the cathode is at high temperature thereby when fed
to the plasma torches in the PGR, reduces power consumption and
increases the efciency of the process while retaining the same levels
of power production as that of an Integrated Gasication Combined
Cycle (plasma), the technology currently being implemented in industry. The model developed by G. Galeno et al. in [34] using Aspen Plus
software has shown that this process has efciency of 33% as compared
to Integrated Gasication Combined Cycle (plasma) which has 30% efciency, the predicted power output is 87kW.
While some researchers are looking into reactor design and novel
methods of improving the thermal plasma treatment technology for
MSW, other researchers are considering improving the plasma generation technology or rather the method of plasma generation.
As mentioned earlier, the current technology related to plasma generation is limited to RF discharge and DC discharge. However there is
307
Fig. 9. Flow diagram of the Integrated Plasma Gasication Fuel Cell system process model, extract from [34].
While researchers are looking into the modication of existing thermal plasma technologies to improve efciency and cost effectiveness
some are looking into microwave induced plasma which promises to
be a revolutionary new approach to thermal plasma treatment of municipal solid waste as it is less power consuming, more tolerant of moisture which is in high levels in municipal solid waste exhibiting regional
composition variations.
Having established that plasma gasication technology is the most
effective way to process municipal solid waste as it has a mass reduction
capability of 90% without emitting any harmful gases we now need to
do it in a more energy efcient manner and microwave induced plasma
might bring us closer to the perfect waste-to-energy technology.
Table 4
Research conducted on microwave induced plasma for possible treatment of organic
matter.
Type of plasma
discharge
Experiment
Investigator
Microwave
Microwave
Y. Ko et al. [33]
Acknowledgement
Authors are thankful to Director, CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur, India for constant support and
encouragement.
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