Co-Gasification of Microplastics with Biomass for Syngas Production – a Simulation Analysis

Co-gasification of microplastics with waste biomass to produce syngas serves as an effective means, to utilize biomass residue and mitigate the microplastics threat; while simultaneously producing energy. In this study, a steady-state simulation model for co-gasification of microplastics with biomass as the feedstock is developed using Aspen Plus. The study investigates the role of parameters such as microplastics to biomass ratio (M:B) in the feed, operating temperatures, equivalence ratio (ER) and steam to feed ratio (SFR) on the resulting syngas composition and its lower heating value (LHV). Preliminary results suggest that, in presence of O₂ as the gasifying agent, increasing the M:B ratio in the feed, gasification temperature and SFR increase the concentration of H₂ and CO in the syngas stream as well as its LHV. ER has an antagonistic effect as its increase hampers the production of H₂ and CO in the syngas stream and the corresponding LHV. This study provides a qualitative support for co-gasification of microplastics with biomass to achieve final syngas with content (H₂ + CO) greater than 62 mol%, H₂/CO molar ratio in range 0.81 – 0.96 and LHV in the range between 7.2-8.9 MJ/Nm³ for the various operational conditions investigated.