Assessment of municipal solid wastes gasification in a semi-industrial gasifier using syngas quality indices

In this work a comprehensive two-dimensional CFD model was used in order to assess the potential of syngas produced from gasification of Portuguese MSW (municipal solid waste) by using a semi-industrial gasification plant. An Eulerian-Eulerian approach within the computational fluid dynamics Fluent framework was used to describe the transport of mass, momentum and energy for both solid and gas phases. Pyrolysis was also modeled. Numerical results were validated against experimental ones. Results were in good agreement with each other. Influence of temperature, MSW admission and equivalent ratio on products of gasification and their concentrations were studied. Considering operating conditions influence on the combustible gases, it was concluded that gasification temperature had the greatest influence on syngas heating value. After analyzing syngas composition and other gasification products the best use for a particular produced syngas was investigated. For the MSW used in this work one of the most promising uses for the obtained syngas was for chemical fuel application.