Thermal Behavior of Waste-derived Fuels and Determination of Optimum Mixture Ratio for Gasification

Abstract

The study focused on determination of thermal behavior of waste-derived fuel under air and air-free conditions. Thermochemical processes are commonly used as waste management options in order to produce energy and minimize the amount of solid wastes. Since the population all over the world is rising, the general concern becomes to find alternative ways to manage all types of waste in an economic manner as increasing the process efficiencies. Treatment sludge, with its complex matrix, needs special attention to prevent environment from its adverse effects in case any contamination. The main idea in this paper is to increase energy content of waste-derived fuel by mixing solid and liquid wastes. As a solid waste, treatment sludge (raw sludge) from a domestic wastewater treatment facility was selected. Waste cooking oil (used oil) was used as liquid form to increase calorific value of waste mixture before gasification experiments. Elemental carbon content of raw sludge increased from 27% (mass) to 32% and 37% after preparing a proportion of 1/5 oil/sludge and 2/5 oil/sludge, respectively. Thermochemical behavior of those mixtures were analyzed by Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) technique. Optimum proportion for gasification of waste-derived fuel was determined as 40%, which also prevents the mixture to behave like a liquid due to viscosity. Syngas had a calorific value of approximately  2700 kcal/m³.

Keywords

• Gasification,Energy,Waste-to-Energy,Syngas

References

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