Thermal plasma decomposition of special types of waste streams

Polypropylene is the largest contributor of plastics waste in municipal solid waste (MSW). Conventional pyrolysis and gasification are being extensively explored to convert plastics waste to energy, however, pyrolysis produces a high amount of tar and char, while gasification has a limited control on syngas composition. Plasma gasification offers a better control of the temperature of the process and optimum composition of the produced syngas. Plasma gasification is a technology for processing waste into syngas, in which temperatures of around 1,500°C are achieved by heating with plasma torches. Plasma gasification experiments of polypropylene granules was carried out at the Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic. Direct current (DC) thermal plasma torches stabilized by water vortex and gas flow were designed and developed at IPP and are capable of delivering high power (<160 kW), high mean temperature (<15,000K) and high enthalpy (