Gasification of organic solid waste for syngas: Physicochemical and conversion mechanism investigation

The syngas of organic solid waste (OSW) obtained through gasification is of great interest in energy and fuel production owing to its clean and environmentally friendly characteristics. In this study, the physicochemical properties of typical OSW were systematically studied, and the mechanism of the influence of OSW sample structure and composition on gasification behavior was studied by thermogravimetric mass spectrometry and gasification experiments. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the surface morphology of the samples, showing that waste wood chips (WWC) and Pennisetum giganteum (PG) have well-developed pore structures. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results indicated that polyurethane foam (PF) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) have more oxygen -containing functional groups than WWC and PG. X-Ray diffraction showed that the order of crystallinity index was WWC > PET > PF > PG. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showed the order of the surface alkali content was PG > PF > WWC. Furthermore, ther-mogravimetric and mass spectrometry experiments were used to explore the components released from volatiles during heating, demonstrating that WWC and PG produce mainly H2O, while PF and PET produce mainly CO2. Gasification experiments were carried out at different heating rates, and PET had the highest initial and final gasification temperatures. The distributed activation energy model was used to calculate the apparent activation energy, which was in the order WWC (153.7 kJ/mol) > PET (136.9 kJ/mol) > PG (81.2 kJ/ mol) > PF (78.9 kJ/mol) and was consistent with the carbon ordering degree result.