A Techno-Economic Assessment of Syngas Production by Plasma Gasification of Municipal Solid Waste as a Substitute Gaseous Fuel

Abstract

The updraft plasma gasification process of different municipal solid wastes (MSWs) to produce syngas as a substitute gaseous fuel was assessed from a techno-economic viewpoint. The plasma gasification process was modeled under a thermo-chemical approach using aspen plus. The model validation has been carried out with experimental data from the literature, reaching an average relative error of 6.23% for temperature, heating values, and fuel species concentration of the syngas. The plasma torch power consumption was one of the main process parameters that affects the energy and exergy efficiencies. In spite of increasing moisture content of MSW, from 26.61% to 57.9%, the energy and exergy efficiencies expanded by 1.5% and 5.4% on average, respectively, which ascribed to the reduction of torch power consumption; this behavior resulted as the torches thermally degraded a lower fraction of dry MSW. Whereas, if plasma temperature increased (2500 °C to 4000 °C), the gasification efficiencies diminished because of the torch power consumption boosted by 28.3%. Furthermore, the parameter combinations process (air flow and plasma temperature) was found to reach the highest process efficiency, the efficiency ranged from 79.22% to 83.46%, highlighting the plasma gasification flexibility. The levelized cost of syngas production varied from 15.83 to 26.21 ¢US$/kW h. Therefore, to make these projects feasible (waste to energy), a waste disposal charge ranging between 14.67 and 26.82 ¢US$/kW h was proposed.