Plasma steam gasification of surgical mask waste for hydrogen-rich syngas production

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of tons of infected surgical mask waste (SMW) were dumped every month without a real vision to manage them. Although the world has successfully passed this critical period, this situation is likely to recur again in the future, therefore a serious industrial eco-solution must be developed to deal with SMW. In this regard, this research aims to investigate the possibility of using arc plasma gasification performances as an eco-friendly energy technique to dispose SMW and convert it into clean energy products. NK90 face masks were used as a feedstock after having converted them into uniform granules using shredding and palletizing pre-treatment processes. The experiments were carried out on a continuous gasification plant with a capacity of 10.4 kg/run with a water vapor agent at 2600 K. Also, the effect of different gasification parameters (arc plasma energy and water vapor (S) to SMW (C)) on the yield and composition of the formulated products was studied. The results showed that under the optimal conditions (56.9 kW, plasma temperature = 2600 K and S/C ratio = 1.45), syngas was produced with a high yield (3.4 m3/kg) and with H2 (49.21%), CO (21.7%), CH4 (12.78%), CO2 (5%), and C2H2 (2.91%) contents. The obtained syngas showed the lower heating value of 14.5 MJ/Nm3 which is 42% higher than that produced from plasma gasification of biomass. Also, a small amount of tar content (29.4 g/m3) rich in a benzene compound (46.8%) was synthesized. The plasma energy and energy conversion efficiency were estimated at 56.9 kW and 51.7%, respectively. Based on these results, plasma steam gasification can be used for utilization of SMW and its conversion into hydrogen-rich syngas for further clean-energy applications.