Study on the Plasma Gasification Technology for Converting Waste to Energy

Solid waste is one of the world’s important issues. Common methods for processing solid waste are landfill, incineration, anaerobic digestion, and pyrolysis. All these methods have some disadvantages and weaknesses. So, finding a new technology which is more powerful and reliable is necessary. The newest method is plasma gasification, which was done on a pilot scale for the first time in 1998. The temperatures up to 5000°C is achievable because of the existence of free electrodes inside the plasma arc. These temperatures are able the turn almost everything into syngas at oxygen starve environment. This process has 4 stages: waste pretreatment, plasma gasifier, gas cleaning system, energy recovery system which are described. Syngas is mostly made of H2, CO, CO2. Using two-stage plasma gasification technique, amplification of throughput, and syngas quality are achieved. This technology requires a considerable amount of initial investment, though it is known to be highly profitable economically.