Steam gasification of the raw and torrefied mixed typical food wastes: Effect of interactions on syngas production

Abstract

In this work, rice (RI), pork (PO), and cabbage (CA) were chosen as typical food wastes to investigate the steam gasification performance of raw and torrefied mixed food wastes at 800 °C, with a focus on the effect of interactions between two components on syngas production. The results showed that there is a synergistic promotion of H2 and CO2 production when co-gasification of CA with RI or PO, mainly due to the reforming of char and volatiles were promoted by alkali and alkaline earth metallic (AAEM) in CA. In contrast, char interaction between PO and RI leads to the formation of more large aromatic carbon structures (≥6 rings), thus resulting in an inhibition effect on the major gas formation, especially for H2 and CO. Torrefaction seems to enhance the synergistic promotions of H2, CO2, and CO production for mixtures containing CA, and alleviate the inhibitory effect for mixed PI and RI. Overall, co-gasification of food waste containing high AAEM with another typical food waste is an important strategy to improve the overall gasification efficiency (CGE). Moreover, torrefaction pretreatment could both increase the CGE and promote the syngas quality, making the syngas more suitable for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.