Hydrogen recovery from the thermal plasma gasification of solid waste

Thermal plasma gasification has been demonstrated as one of the most effective and environmentally friendly methods for solid waste treatment and energy utilization in many of studies. Therefore, the thermal plasma process of solid waste gasification (paper mill waste, 1.2 ton/day) was applied for the recovery of high purity H2 (>99.99%). Gases emitted from a gasification furnace equipped with a nontransferred thermal plasma torch were purified using a bag-filter and wet scrubber. Thereafter, the gases, which contained syngas (CO + H2), were introduced into a H2 recovery system, consisting largely of a water gas shift (WGS) unit for the conversion of CO to H2 and a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit for the separation and purification of H2. It was successfully demonstrated that the thermal plasma process of solid waste gasification, combined with the WGS and PSA, produced high purity H2 (20 N m3/h (400 H2-N m3/PMW-ton), up to 99.99%) using a plasma torch with 1.6 MWh/PMW-ton of electricity. The results presented here suggest that the thermal plasma process of solid waste gasification for the production of high purity H2 may provide a new approach as a future energy infrastructure based on H2.