Plasma aided gasification of biomass, organic waste and plastics

Gasification of organic waste is a specific process of plasma waste treatment. Besides destruction of treated material, production of syngas with main components CO and H2 is main goal of the process. Thermal plasma offers possibility of decomposition of materials by pure pyrolysis in the absence of oxygen, or with steichiometric amount of oxygen to produce mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide without solid carbon fractions. The paper describes processes of thermal plasma gasification, gasification reactors and plasma sources. Analysis of energy balances of plasma gasification is presented, kinetics of the gasification process is studied and relations between particle size, reaction temperature and gasification rate are discussed. Examples of results of gasification of biomass, plastics and pyrolysis oil from used tires are given. Syngas with high heating value and low tar content is produced by plasma gasification. 1