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Tar-deficient producer gas with tunable H2/CO ratio from waste polypropylene via CO2/steam gasification using an in-situ activated carbon bed
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Researchers tested a lab-scale reactor that converts waste polypropylene plastic into useful gas using heat, CO2 and steam. Adding a bed of activated carbon removed 99.5% of tar byproducts and boosted hydrogen and carbon monoxide levels, while adjusting gas ratios let researchers control the mix of gases produced.
Plastic waste poses a growing environmental burden, and its conversion into useful producer gas using CO2 as a reactive gasifying agent offers a route that couples waste valorization with the use of CO2 as a reactive gasifying agent. In this study, steam-assisted CO2 gasification of waste polypropylene (PP) was investigated in a bench-scale downdraft fixed-bed gasifier equipped with an in-situ activated carbon (AC) bed to produce H2-rich producer gas while suppressing tar formation. The effects of the CO2/C ratio, steam-to-carbon (S/C) ratio, and reaction temperature on producer gas composition, H2/CO ratio, tar reduction, and the apparent gas-phase CO2 deficit were evaluated. The AC bed functioned as a multifunctional medium, promoting tar cracking and steam reforming while physically retaining tar condensates and char particles. Compared with the AC-free condition, the AC bed reduced tar in gas from 4410.3 to 22.1 mg/Nm3, corresponding to 99.5% removal, and increased the H2 and CO concentrations by 2.5-fold, to 51.9 vol%, and 3.0-fold, to 11.9 vol%, respectively. GC-MS analysis of the residual tar further revealed that the AC bed suppressed the growth of light aromatics into heavier polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The CO2/C ratio effectively tuned the H2/CO ratio from 2.4 to 6.9 and an apparent gas-phase CO2 deficit of 90.9% was determined using an N2 tracer method. These results demonstrate that CO2/steam gasification of waste PP over an in-situ AC bed can combine tar suppression and producer-gas upgrading in a waste-to-gas process using CO2 and steam as gasifying agents.
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