Gasification of MSW and Biomass using Aspen Plus®

Abstract

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) refers to solid waste generated by towns and cities from different types of household activities1. Over 2 billion tons of MSW are produced annually. Improper disposal can lead to adverse health outcomes through water, soil and air contamination. Hazardous waste or unsafe waste treatment such as open burning can directly harm waste workers or other people involved in waste burning and neighbouring communities. At the same time, in order to keep up with the need in development, the energy demand also increasing. Therefore, utilize MSW to produce energy is gaining more recognition from public interest. Gasification offers some advantages over traditional method of utilize MSW (incineration, compost). Gasification plants produce significantly lower quantities of air pollutants. The process reduces the environmental impact of waste disposal because it allows for the use of waste products as a feedstock. In this paper, Aspen Plus software was deployed to assess and predict the outcome of the gasification process of MSW. The model was calibrated and validated with various observed data. The condition of input MSW and biomass, as well as the gasification agent were considered. The results revealed that primary products of gasification process are similar to other previously conducted experiments.