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Utilization of MSW-Derived Char for Catalytic Reforming of Tars and Light Hydrocarbons in the Primary Syngas Produced During Wood Chips and MSW-RDF Air Gasification

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Abstract

The present work aimed at optimising the design and operation of char utilization as a low cost catalyst for tars reforming. The effect of temperature, tars composition, light hydrocarbons composition, steam content and type of reformer on the conversion of tars and light hydrocarbons into additional syngas using sorted municipal solid waste (MSW)—derived char was systematically monitored. Reforming tests were carried out using industrial primary syngas produced by air gasification of wood chips and MSW-RDF in a commercial fluidized bed gasifier. Up to 85% of tars present in the primary syngas have been converted to permanent gases at 871 °C, while passing through the catalytic fixed bed of char, for 1.4 s, at atmospheric pressure and syngas space velocities in the 3500–4000/h relative to the char in the bed (0.82 NL/g h). Content of multi-ring aromatics decreased following the passage of the syngas through the char bed leaving naphthalene and xylene as the predominant residuals. Propane, propylene and ethylene were completely converted. Up to 30% methane conversion was reached at 925 °C while ethane conversion was only occurring under high steam content of 65 vol%.

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Abbreviations

0 :

The index 0 indicates an initial value

IS :

Internal Standard

Xi :

Conversion of species i

mi :

Mass flow rate of the species i

[Ei]:

Concentration of the species i

Si :

Surface of a peak in the spectrum of species i

Ki :

Calibration factor of species i with respect to the internal standard

K12 :

Calibration factor of the species 1 with respect to the species 2

X2/1 :

Factor of reduction of  \(\frac{{\left[ {E_{2} } \right]}}{{\left[ {E_{1} } \right]}}\) ratio

K2/1 :

Rate of variation of  \(\frac{{\left[ {E_{2} } \right]}}{{\left[ {E_{1} } \right]}}\) ratio

τ:

Mean residence \(\left( {\frac{V}{\upsilon }} \right)\) time

V:

Volume

E:

Activation energy

a:

Pre-exponential factor

R:

Ideal gas constant

ki :

Reaction constant

[Char]0 :

Char concentration injected into the reformer at reaction conditions

Mi :

Molecular weight of species i

xi :

Mass fraction of species i in the Char

v :

Gas volume flow

Da:

Damköhler number

\(\overline {{\text{X}}}\) :

Average conversion

Θ:

Reduced time

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to funders of the Industrial Research Chair on Cellulosic Ethanol and Biocommodities of the Université de Sherbrooke and NSERC (CRDPJ 486964-2015) for their support, to Esteban Chornet for his guidance throughout this project, and to Boris Valsecchi for technical assistance. The authors would also like to thank MITACS (Grant Number IT03931) for supporting Dr Gnouyaro Palla Assima’s salary during the project.

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  1. Chaire de Recherche Industrielle sur l’Éthanol Cellulosique et les Biocarburants (CRIEC-B), Université de Sherbrooke, 4070, boul. de Portland, Sherbrooke, QC, J1L 2Y4, Canada

    Gnouyaro Palla Assima, Antonin Paquet & Jean-Michel Lavoie

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  1. Gnouyaro Palla Assima
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Correspondence to Jean-Michel Lavoie.

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Assima, G.P., Paquet, A. & Lavoie, JM. Utilization of MSW-Derived Char for Catalytic Reforming of Tars and Light Hydrocarbons in the Primary Syngas Produced During Wood Chips and MSW-RDF Air Gasification. Waste Biomass Valor 10, 1203–1222 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-017-0138-0

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