Basic Study on Hydrogen-rich Gas Production by High Temperature Steam Gasification of Solid Wastes

Abstract

In this paper, the basic studies on the high temperature steam gasification system which is named as HyPR-MEET system are carried out using the Japanese cedar and pure polythylene (PE) particles as feedstocks. First, the characteristic of steam gasification is investigated. With each feedstock, the hydrogen concentration increases as the gasification temperature rises, but the increasing rate of hydrogen concentration decreases over the temperature of 1 073 K for Japanese cedar and 1 173 K for PE. The increase of the steam/carbon molar ratio also increases the hydrogen concentration. Second, the effectiveness of the Ru/Al2O3 catalyst for steam reforming of tar components is investigated. With use of this catalyst, tar components can be reformed at the temperature of 973 K, while the temperature of 1 173 K is required without use of any catalysts. Furthermore, light hydrocarbon gases are also reformed with this catalyst, and the hydrogen concentration in the reformed gas can reach the value of 55 vol% for Japanese cedar, and of 68 vol% for PE.