Effect of biomedical waste co-feeding in the steam gasification of Indian palm kernel shell in fluidized bed gasifier

Abstract

Gasification is the thermo-chemical process that converts biomass into producer gas which is used for various applications like heat production, electricity, and hydrocarbon synthesis. In this present work, the steam gasification of biomedical waste such as glucose plastic bottle, syringe, and Indian palm kernel shell is gasified in fluidized bed gasifier. The mixture of palm kernel shell co-feeding with biomedical waste such as 100% palm kernel shell (PKS), 25% biomedical waste (BMW), 50% biomedical waste, and 100% biomedical waste using olivine as a primary catalyst is used. The influences of co-feeding of biomedical waste with palm kernel shell on the gas yield, char yield, tar yield, carbon conversion efficiency, tar composition, and gas composition are investigated. The co-feeding of biomedical waste with palm kernel shell for steam/feedstock mass ratio of 1, the tar content is decreased from 53.56 to 3.6 gNm-3 and the char is reduced from 4.9 to 0.4 wt %. Heterocyclic, heavy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and light aromatic compounds are reducing when compared to that of light polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at temperature 900°C. The value of carbon conversion efficiency also increases for palm kernel shell is 78.7% and for biomedical waste is 98% respectively. Hence, the scope of the present study is to optimize the process parameters for the taken feedstock with respect to our environmental condition with the help of lab scale reactors. Later scale up can be done to utilize the product for practical applications.