Steam Gasification of Refuse-Derived Fuel in a Rotary Kiln Pilot Plant: Experimental Tests

Abstract

Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) steam gasification tests were performed in a rotary kiln pilot plant. The gas features were evaluated by varying the feeding ratio (FR), in the range 0.4-2.67, at a constant temperature equal to 850 °C. Several experimental tests were carried out in order to evaluate the best values for the main operating variables: kiln temperature, gas and solid residence time, etc., before evaluating the effect of the FR increase on the gas energy content and composition.
Results show that the gas energy content decreases as the FR increases and, in the range of the FR studied, it achieves the maximum for FR=0.4, which corresponds to a volumetric gas composition ofH₂=59.1 %vv, CO=16.8 %v/v, CO₂=20.1 %v/v, CH₄=3 %v/v (not considering N₂) and the highest lower heating value (LHV) equal to 16 MJ kg_gas^-1 is obtained.