The initiation stage of Food Court Waste during air versus steam gasification processes

Using different gasification agents: air and steam, two types of gasification process were performed into a batch reactor at temperature of 750°C and 850°C and atmospheric pressure. The only difference between of the two compared experimental configurations was represented by the gasification agent used in the process. The amount of oxygen introduced into the reactor for air gasification at an ER of 0.3 was computed. Therefore, in the steam gasification process, the same amount of oxygen was introduced, so establishing an unordinary steam to biomass ratio. In this way, the two processes, air vs. steam gasification, were compared, the rest of the process parameters being kept constant. This paper approaches the transitory regimes (initiation stage) of gasification process in order to observe the influence of process temperature and gasification agent on the process run. According to the experimental results, better gas quality is obtained if steam is used as a gasifying agent, yet the conversion and energy efficiencies decreases. By optimizing time residence in steam gasification, process efficiencies may be increased.