Gasification of waste tires in a fluid bed reactor

Abstract

Shredded rubber tires were gasified with steam in a 0.23m I.D. fluidized bed reactor over a temperature range of 900–1060K. The results indicated that the gas produced is rich in olefins and the heating value and volumetric yield of the produced gas vary approximately linearly with the gasification temperature. The gas yield decreases and its heating value increases as the gasification temperature is decreased. In the temperature range investigated, the heating value of the produced gas ranged between 39.6 MJ/Nm 3 (1060 Btu/SCF) and 22.2 MJ/Nm 3 (595 Btu/SCF), and the gas yield ranged from 0.21 Nm 3/kg DAF (3.5 SCF/lb DAF) to 0.76 Nm 3/kg DAF (12.1 SCF/lb DAF). The results also indicated that the fluid bed gives a higher gas yield than other types of contactors.