Energy 68 (2014) 735e743

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Energy generation by air gasication of two industrial plastic wastes

in a pilot scale uidized bed reactor
Umberto Arena a, b, *, Fabrizio Di Gregorio b
a
b

Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, Second University of Naples, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy
AMRA s.c.a r.l. e Analysis and Monitoring of Environmental Risk, Via Nuova Agnano 11, 80125 Napoli, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 2 November 2013
Received in revised form
14 January 2014
Accepted 22 January 2014
Available online 20 February 2014

Two plastic wastes obtained as co-products from an industrial process were fed in a pilot-scale bubbling
uidized bed gasier, having an internal diameter of 0.38 m and a maximum thermal output of about
400 kW. The experimental runs were carried out by reaching a condition of thermal and chemical steady
state under values of equivalence ratio ranging from 0.2 to 0.3. Olivine, a neo-silicate of Fe and Mg,
already tested as a good catalyst for tar removal during gasication of polyolen plastic wastes, was used
as bed material. The results provide the complete composition of the syngas, including the tar, particulate and acid/basic gas contents as well as the chemical and physical characterization of the bed material and entrained nes. The gasication process appears technically feasible, yielding a producer gas of
valuable quality for energy applications in an appropriate plant conguration. On the other hand, under
the experimental conditions tested, olivine particles show a strongly reduced catalytic activity in all the
runs. The differences in the gasication behaviour of the two industrial plastics are explained on the
basis of the structure and composition of the wastes, taking also into account the results of a combined
material and substance ow analysis.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Gasication
Mixed-plastic waste
Fluidized bed
Waste-to-energy
Co-gasication

1. Introduction and framework

The necessity of thermochemical conversion treatments in a
sustainable waste management system is now generally recognized, in particular for mixed plastic wastes (MPWs) [1e3]. These
processes allow a series of important advantages, mainly the sustainable recovery of remarkable amount of energy, with the related
huge saving of environmental burdens [4], and the strong reduction
of mass and volume of waste, with the related saving of landll
space [5,6]. An efcient way for thermochemical exploitation of
MPWs is uidized bed gasication. Gasication is the conversion of
solid fuel to a synthesis-gas through gas-forming reactions occurring in presence of an amount of oxidant lower than that required
for the stoichiometric combustion. The resulting fuel gas (named
producer gas or syngas) can be utilized in a separate and specic energy conversion device: it contains large amounts of not
completely oxidized products (mainly CO, H2 and lower amounts of
CH4), together with minor quantities of different organic (tar) and
* Corresponding author. Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, Second University of Naples, Via Vivaldi 43,
81100 Caserta, Italy. Tel.: 39 0823 274414; fax: 39 0823 274605.
E-mail address: umberto.arena@unina2.it (U. Arena).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.01.084
0360-5442/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

inorganic (H2S, HCl, NH3, HCN, alkali metals) impurities or particulates [7,8]. Fluidization is a very interesting gasication technology, mainly for the high quality of gasesolid contact and the very
efcient mass and heat transfers, but also for its wide exibility,
which accommodates variation in fuel quality and allows to utilize
different uidizing agents, reactor temperatures and gas residence
times, to add reagents along the reactor height and to operate with
or without catalysts [9].
The greatest technical challenge to achieve economically and
environmentally efcient energy recovery from waste gasication
is to overcome problems associated with the formation and release
of some contaminants, so improving the quality of the obtained
syngas. During gasication, the continual build-up of condensable
organic compounds present in the producer gas, and usually
referred to as tar, is the main concern since it causes fouling troubles in the process equipments as well as damages to the devices
for end-use application [10]. This aspect is so crucial that it denes
the two possible congurations of gasication-based waste-toenergy plants, that of heat gasier and that of power gasier
[8,9]. In the rst, the tar problem is solved by direct combustion of
raw syngas, with the possibility of an optional pre-treatment to
remove some other contaminants, such as powders and hydrogen
chloride. In the power gasier, the syngas is instead properly

736

U. Arena, F. Di Gregorio / Energy 68 (2014) 735e743

Fig. 1. Schematic of the pilot-scale uidized bed gasier, with some typical operating parameters.

treated in a cleaning section that works as an interface between the

gasier and the specic end-use device, generally a high energy
conversion efciency apparatus, such as a gas engine or a gas turbine. So far, power gasication projects are still greatly hindered by
the difculty of dening an efcient and economical sustainable
gas cleaning system. In particular, the approaches for reduction of
tar formation and for its removal from syngas can be classied as
primary, in situ methods (mainly consisting of appropriate selection of gasication operating conditions) and secondary downstream methods (thermal or catalytic tar cracking, mechanical
methods, and wet scrubbing). The latter are very effective in several
cases but they are often expensive and particularly complex when a
very low tar content in the syngas is required [8,9,11] or are still at a
level of interesting prototype, as that proposed by Cho et al. [12,13].
On the other side, the primary methods suffer from limitations in
feedstock exibility and scale-up as well as narrow operating
window [9,14].
This study aims to evaluate the air gasication behaviour of two
mixed plastic wastes obtained as co-products from a process industry, in order to obtain data and information useful to dene a
suitable plant conguration and some related design solutions for a
fully sustainable energy generation. To this end, the two MPWs
were fed to a pilot scale bubbling uidized bed gasier (BFBG),
having a size sufciently large to avoid any scale effects. The
experimental results were processed by means of material and
energy balances as well as material and substance ow analyses
[15]. The attention was mainly focused on evaluating the inuence

of the equivalence ratio (dened as the ratio between the oxygen

content of air supply and that required for the stoichiometric
complete combustion of the fuel effectively fed to the reactor) in
terms of the main process parameters, such as the heating value of
the obtained syngas, its specic energy and its content of condensable hydrocarbons.
2. The uidized bed gasier, the experimental procedures and
the fuels tested
2.1. The uidized bed gasier
The pilot scale plant has a feedstock capacity between 30 and
100 kg/h, depending on the type of fuel, and a maximum thermal
output of about 400 kW. It is composed of three main sections, as it
is sketched in Fig. 1: the feeding system, the uidized bed gasier
and the syngas cleaning unit. The rst can be divided in the blast
and fuel feeding. The blast feeding is heated up to about 150  C by a
rst electric heater, then sent to a mixing point with an optional
stream of steam at about 150  C, and nally heated by a second
electric heater up to the desired inlet temperature at the uidized
bed bottom. In all the experiments reported here, only air was used
as blast agent and always injected at the bed bottom while the fuel
was always fed by means of an over-bed system, with a small ow
rate of nitrogen utilized as transport gas. The gasication section is
composed of a cylindrical reactor, having an internal diameter of
0.381 m and a total height of 5.90 m, which is heated up to the

U. Arena, F. Di Gregorio / Energy 68 (2014) 735e743

CO2

CH4

H2

O2

CO

737

bed temperature

24

1000

22

900

20

800

18
700

16
14

600

12

500

10

400

300

6
200

100

2
0

0
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Fig. 2. Time prole of gas composition and bed temperature in a typical run with MPW1.

reaction temperature by the sensible heat of pre-heated blast gases

and by a set of three external electrical furnaces. The syngas
cleaning section is composed of a high efciency cyclone (for
abatement of ne particles), a simple wet scrubber (for removal of
tar, residual dust, acid gases and ammonia) and a are.
2.2. The experimental procedures
Each run has a start-up of about 3 h, during which three electric
heaters located along the reactor drive the temperature up to about
700  C, while the bed is uidized at a xed velocity. At this point,
the ow rates of MPW and air are adjusted in order to obtain the
desired value of the equivalence ratio (ER). Under the selected
operating conditions of ER and air preheating temperature, and
without any more thermal assistance of external heaters, the
reactor gradually reaches a thermal and chemical steady state. The
gas and solids sampling procedures are then activated and measurements of pressure, temperature, blast ow rates and syngas
composition upstream of and downstream of the wet scrubber are
performed and averaged over the whole period of steady state,
which usually is kept for about 2 h. Fig. 2 shows the successive steps
of the described procedure, reporting the time prole of gas
composition and bed temperature for a typical run with one of the
two tested mixed plastic wastes.
In order to increase the reliability of measurements, in all the
runs the composition of the syngas downstream of the cleaning
section was on-line monitored by means of two systems: a series of
IR analysers (Horiba VA-3115 for CO, CO2 and O2, Horiba VA-3001
for CH4 and Teledyne Anal. Instr.-2000 for H2) and an Agilent
3000 gas-chromatograph equipped with 4 different columns (Mol
Sieve, PoraPlot, OV, Alumina) for the detection of a wide spectrum
of syngas compounds. Gas was also sampled in Tedlar bags at two
other points (2.3 m from the reactor bottom and the gasier exit)
and sent to off-line measurements. Two methods were used to
evaluate the amount and composition of tar, due to the relevance of
these measurements for the technical and economic feasibility of
the process. The rst assumes that tar is composed of all organic
compounds with a molecular weight larger than benzene,
excluding soot and char: then it conservatively imputes to the tar
amount the whole carbon loading which, as a result of a mass
balance on atomic species, cannot be attributed either to the producer gas or to the solids collected at the cyclone or present inside

the bed. The second method samples the condensable species by

means of a system composed of four in-series cooling coils, a suction pump and a ow meter operated with a syngas ow rate of
about 300 dm3N/h for 30 min: the condensed hydrocarbons are
then off-line analyzed with a specic pre-treatment in a Perkine
Elmer Clarus 500 gas chromatograph coupled with a mass spectrometer (GCeMS). The rst conservative method was utilized for
quantitative determination of tar concentration in the obtained
producer gas. The second procedure was instead used to detect
tar compounds belonging to the classes between 2 and 5 of the
classication proposed by the Energy research Center of The
Netherlands (ECN) [14]. Hydrogen chloride, hydrogen sulphide and
ammonia were measured by bubbling the producer gas through
two pairs of gas stripping bubblers, connected in series and containing basic and acid solutions respectively, and subsequently
analyzed by means of a Dionex DX-120 ion chromatograph. Data
obtained from on-line and off-line gas measurements and from
chemical analyses of solid samples were processed to develop mass
balance on atomic species and the related energy balance for each
test. The ow rate of produced syngas was determined by the tiecomponent method [16] applied to the value of nitrogen content
in the dry syngas, as obtained by (on-line and off-line) GC
measurements, and adequately corrected to take into account the
nitrogen fed into the gasier with the waste and that leaving it as
ammonia.

2.3. The mixed plastic wastes and the bed material

Table 1 reports ultimate analysis and low heating value of both
MPWs, together with the composition of the inorganic fraction.
MPW1 is a mixture of different kinds of plastics, mainly polyolens.
MPW2 contains the same MPW1 plastic mixture for 80% and a
cellulosic material for the remaining fraction, as it can be deduced
by contents of Ca, K and Mg, that are typically higher for biomass.
Both the MPWs were mechanically processed to obtain cylindrical
pellets (5 mm of diameter and 20 mm of length), in order to avoid
any effect related to fuel size and to increase the density of material
to be fed into the reactor by means of an over-bed system. Data in
Table 1 indicate both the MPW pellets as good quality fuels for
energy generation [17], with a low ash (2e5.5%) and moisture
contents (0.5e1.5%).

738

U. Arena, F. Di Gregorio / Energy 68 (2014) 735e743

Table 1
Main chemical properties of the tested mixed plastic wastes.

Ultimate analysis, %wt,

C
H
N
S
O (by diff.)
Moisture
Ash

MPW1

MPW2

76.54
12.84
0.20
e
7.91
0.47
2.04

66.58
10.14
0.10
0.03
16.07
1.51
5.57

Table 2
Operating conditions and experimental results for two gasication tests with
different MPWs, carried out under similar operating conditions.
MPW1

MPW2

ar

Heating value, MJ/kgfuel,

HHV
LHV

ar

(based on Ref. [17])

42.7
39.7

Ash composition, mg/kgdb

Aluminium
Cadmium
Calcium
Chlorine
Iron
Lead
Magnesium
Mercury
Potassium
Zinc
Sulphur

114
<RL
4440
1680
155
18.1
105
<RL
168
34.9
94

34.9
32.5
58.4
<RL
13,300
488
288
<RL
350
<RL
42
17.6
149

ar as received; db dry basis.

The bed material used during the experimental runs is olivine,

due to its good performance as tar removal agent, reported in
several studies on gasication of biomass [10,18,19] and polyolen
plastic wastes [20e22]. It is a neo-silicate of Fe and Mg coming from
Austria and composed mainly of MgO, SiO2, and Fe2O3 but even
Al2O3, Cr2O3, Mg3O4 and CaO, characterized by a particle size distribution of 200e400 mm and a particle density of 2900 kg/m3. It
was pre-calcined at the production site and further calcined just
before each test for about 8 h in oxidizing atmosphere at 800  C, in
order to improve their potential catalytic activity as tar removal
agent [10,19].

Operating conditions
Equivalence ratio (ER), e
Air/fuel (A/F), kgair/kgMPW
Bed amount, kg
Mixed plastic waste ow rate, kgMPW/h
Fluidizing velocity, m/s
Air preheating temperature,  C
Process results and parameters
Bed temperature at steady state,  C
Producer gas temperature at reactor exit,  C
Producer gas production, m3N/h (dry basis)
Specic producer gas production, kgproducer gas/kgMPW
Producer gas LHV, kJ/m3N
Specic energy, kWh/kgMPW
CCE, e
CGE, e
Producer gas composition, %
N2
CO2
CO
H2
CH4
C2H2
C2H4
C2H6
C3H6
BTX
Elutriated nes, g/kgMPW
Carbon elutriated nes, gC/kgC-MPW
Tar,a g/m3N
Naphthalene, % of identied tar species
Pyrene, % of identied tar species
Phenanthrene, % of identied tar species
HCl,b mg/m3N
H2S, mg/m3N
NH3, mg/m3N

0.248
3.18
145
28.31
0.72
133

0.244
2.54
145
35.47
0.71
170

887
750
92.7
4.00
6590
5.99
0.76
0.55

869
743
96.7
3.43
7410
5.61
0.86
0.62

66.1
10.3
4.5
5.9
6.6
0.32
3.34
0.07
0.12
0.39
3.0
1.7
59
15.3
9.9
44.4
3.2
0.7
55.9

63.4
12.7
6.6
6.0
6.5
0.20
3.44
0.10
0.25
0.84
16.6
8.3
34
68.1
1.0
15.1
3.0
3.2
194.9

a
This values were conservatively determined on the basis of mass balance on
atomic species.
b
The samples of gas for measurements of NH3, HCl and H2S were all taken at the
reactor exit, i.e. before the cleaning gas system.

3. Results and discussion

CnHm nH2O / nCO (n m/2)H2

(2)

3.1. Composition of the producer gas

CnHm nCO2 / 2nCO m/2H2

(3)

The pilot scale reactor was operated by injecting the MPWs into
a bed of olivine particles uidized at a xed supercial gas velocity
of about 0.7 m/s and bed temperatures of about 850  C, under
values of equivalence ratio varying from 0.21 to 0.30, in order to
quantitatively assess its behaviour in the gasication process.
Table 2 lists the complete operating conditions and experimental
results of a couple of tests, being the complete set of experimental
results reported in diagrams of Figs. 3e7. Fig. 3 reports the
composition of the obtained producer gas in all the air gasication
tests as a function of equivalence ratio. An increase of ER implies a
larger amount of oxygen available for reaction with volatiles in the
pyrolysis zone [23,24], and then a greater extension of partial
oxidation reactions:

The concentration of carbon dioxide appears to have limited

variations, as a consequence of the opposite effects of Boudouard
reaction:

CnHm n/2O2 / nCO m/2H2

(1)

Thereby, there is a reduction of the contents of methane,

ethylene and CnHm hydrocarbons (with n 2e4) and a corresponding increase of those of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The
latter increase could be also related to the slower reactions of steam
and dry reforming:

C CO2 / 2CO

(4)

and CO partial oxidation

CO 1/2O2 / CO2

(5)

The greater extension of exothermic partial oxidation reactions

also generates an increase of reactor temperature, described by the
average values of bed temperatures reported in Fig. 4, ranging from
842  C (with MPW2 at ER 0.21) to 935  C (with MPW1 at
ER 0.30). All the tests were carried out under thermal and
chemical steady state conditions, then the nal bed temperature is
a state variable, i.e. the system answer to each dened set of
operating conditions, such as the fuel heating value, equivalence
ratio and, to a lesser extent, air preheating temperature. The latter
was used as reactor temperature moderator, as it can be deduced by
the gradual decrease of the values reported in Fig. 4.

U. Arena, F. Di Gregorio / Energy 68 (2014) 735e743

739

Fig. 3. Composition of producer gas in the experiments with MPW1 (left) and MPW2 (right).

3.2. Process performance parameters

The four diagrams of Figs. 5 and 6 report the values of the main
process performance parameters, as a function of equivalence ratio:
the LHV of the producer gas (excluding the contribution of tar
compounds); its specic energy, i.e. the chemical energy of the
producer gas per kg of MPW; the Carbon Conversion Efciency
(CCE), i.e. the carbon ow rate converted to gaseous products with
respect to that fed to the reactor with the MPW; the Cold Gas Efciency (CGE), i.e. the fraction of the chemical energy of each MPW
which is transferred to the producer gas.
As expected on the basis of previous studies on plastic waste
gasication [12,13,20e22], the LHVs reduce as ER increases. This is
the result of opposite effects: the strong reduction of content of
hydrocarbons having very high heating values (mainly methane,
ethylene and acetylene) and the corresponding increase of
hydrogen and carbon monoxide contents. The measured values
reported in Fig. 5 range between 6 and 8 MJ/m3N and then are of
great interest for energy applications. The maximum values grow
up to more than 9 MJ/m3N if the energy content of the tar compounds is taken into account (assuming all the tar as naphthalene)
[23,25]. It is also noteworthy that, in the range of experimental
conditions tested, the specic energy of the producer gas increases
for higher values of equivalence ratio, from about 5 kWh/kgMPW to
about 7 kWh/kgMPW (that again increases up to about 8 kWh/
kgMPW, if the tar energy is taken into account). This apparent
contradiction is explained by the diagrams of Fig. 6, that show how
CCE and CGE increase as a function of ER, up to maximum values at
about ER 0.28. The increase of CCE is mainly due to the larger
amount of oxygen that is available for oxidation of carbon nes,
being char conversion not much affected by oxygen. The increase of
CGE is instead related to the reduced production of condensable

Fig. 4. Bed and air preheating temperature in all the gasication tests with both the
MPWs.

heavy hydrocarbons (tar) and elutriated carbon nes that occur

when ER increases, as it is shown in Fig. 7.
The amount and composition of tar contained in the producer
gas is another crucial parameter of the gasication process. In
particular, the reduction of tar content at the reactor exit, i.e. before
the syngas cleaning unit, is related to the enhanced extension of
reactions of thermal cracking:
pCxHy / qCnHm rH2

(6)

and dehydrogenation/carbonization:
CnHm / nC m/2H2

(7)

which are likely only partially improved by the magnesium and

ferrous oxides contained in the olivine particles [22]. The catalytic
action of olivine appears only partially present during air gasication of both the MPWs, in disagreement with the very good results
(tar content close to zero and concentration of hydrogen as high as
25% or more) obtained with other mixture of polyolen wastes [26].
This effect could be attributed: to the ferrous and non-ferrous
metals in the ash that could act as competitors of the iron of
olivine particles; or to the large content of oxygen in the fuels, that
could prevent the reduction of olivine iron or may generate CO
which, in turn, binds the iron to different kinds of carbonyls (such
as Fe2(CO)9, Fe3(CO)12, and their hydrides) [23,26]. This promotes a
producer gas rich in condensable hydrocarbons with a complex
molecular structure (4 or 5 rings): the tar dew point is then
particularly high and the producer gas handling in the cold section
of the gasication plant became a hard task [11].
3.3. Different behaviour of the mixed plastic wastes
The differences in the behaviour of the two MPWs can be
evaluated by analyzing the results of two couples of runs carried
out under very close values of ER and reactor temperature: those at
ER z 0.21 and temperature of 874  C for MPW1 and 842  C for
MPW2 and those (reported in Table 2) at ER z 0.25 and temperature of 887  C for MPW1 and 869  C for MPW2. Both the runs
with MPW2 present a larger production of carbon nes (11.5 gC/
kgC-MPW instead of 9.3 gC/kgC-MPW and 8.3 gC/kgC-MPW instead of
1.7 gC/kgC-MPW, respectively). The same MPW2 runs have also a
smaller production of tar at the reactor exit (60 g/m3N instead of
90 g/m3N and 34 g/m3N instead of 59 g/m3N, respectively). This
suggests that the presence of a fraction of cellulosic material for
about 20% of the total has an inuence similar to those observed in
some plastic and biomass co-gasication tests [27]. The result
conrms that the formation of carbon ne particles and heavy

740

U. Arena, F. Di Gregorio / Energy 68 (2014) 735e743

Fig. 5. Low heating value and specic energy of the obtained producer gas in all the gasication tests with both the MPWs.

condensable hydrocarbons is strongly correlated to the fuel

structure and composition: gasication of biomass fuels typically
generates larger amounts of particulate while that of plastic fuels
produces larger amounts of tars. The investigation on the differences in the gasication behaviour of the tested wastes was further
developed by using a combined material and substance ow
analysis (MFA/SFA) [15]. The MFA is a systematic assessment of the
ows and stocks of materials and elements within a system
dened in space and time, which is named SFA when it is referred
to a specic chemical element. MFA/SFA is today largely utilized to
connect the sources, pathways, and intermediate and nal sinks of
each species in a specic waste treatment process or management
system, since it supplies data that are often relevant for the design,
operation, and control of these systems [3,6,20]. The MFA/SFA was
applied to the couple of tests already taken into account and reported in Table 2. The results highlight pathways and sinks related
to total mass, feedstock energy, and several elements (carbon,
chlorine, sulphur, calcium, magnesium, potassium, aluminium,
iron, zinc, lead). Some of them are reported in the ow diagrams of
Figs. 8e10.
Fig. 8 reports the ow analysis of total mass in the different
sections of the pilot scale plant for the tests with the two MPWs,
which is useful to design the main components of the different
units. It is also relevant that the amount of bed material is slightly
but gradually reduced by using MPW1, since the very low amount
of ash (0.47%) is not able to balance the effect of ne elutriation
(0.36 kg/h); on the contrary, with MPW2 the increased amount of
ash content in the fuel (1.51%) substantially balances this bed
depletion (0.01 kg/h). Fig. 9 represents instead the utilization of

SFA to quantify the zinc partitioning in the uidized bed gasication process and in the successive gas cleaning treatments. Zinc is a
low-boiling heavy metal frequently taken into account in this type
of studies, since its presence is a crucial factor to dene the potentiality of reutilization of solid residues of a thermochemical
plant [6,28]. Although the involved amounts are very low (less than
1 g/h), zinc seems to escape totally the reactor, indicating that no
accumulation is present inside the uidized bed. This could suggest
that the typical operating conditions of a bubbling uidized bed
gasier could be able to obtain the complete release of zinc in the
exit gas stream, at the typical BFBG operating temperatures of 800e
900  C, which are greatly lower than those of other gasication
technologies (1600e1800  C), specically developed to improve
this aspect [28]. It was also observed an almost equal distribution
between the stream of cyclone nes (55e60%) and that of dedusted syngas (40e45%). Moreover, there are no effects on partitioning due to the presence of cellulosic fraction inside the waste.
Finally, Fig. 10 is related to the feedstock energy of each streams,
i.e. the chemical energy of all compounds contained in each mass
ow rate. It can be noted that the fraction of this energy which is
invested at steady state to obtain the raw syngas is always in the
range 20e27% of the total energy, as mentioned elsewhere
[9,18,20]. In particular, this energy investment is higher for
MPW2 (26.5%) than for MPW1 (24.5%), as a consequence of the
presence of 20% of cellulose and of a higher moisture content. Data
conrm the values of CGE reported in Fig. 6 and Table 2 and
highlight that CGE can remarkably increase (up to 0.74, i.e. 17% for
MPW1 and 34% for MPW2 test respectively) if the process will be
integrated in a heat gasier conguration, so completely recovering

Fig. 6. Carbon conversion and cold gas efciencies in all the gasication tests with both the MPWs.

U. Arena, F. Di Gregorio / Energy 68 (2014) 735e743

741

Fig. 7. Tar content and elutriation rate of nes and carbon nes in all the gasication tests with both the MPWs.

the chemical energy of tar [23]. This conclusion appears further

supported by the measurements related to tar amount and
composition. As reported in Fig. 7 and Table 2, the uidized bed
gasication of both the MPWs generates remarkable amounts of
tar, which are largely made of three main identiable compounds:
naphthalene, C10H8 (that is always more than 60% of the identied
tar species for tests with MPW2), phenanthrene, C14H10 (that is
typically more than 40% of the identied tar species for tests with
MPW1), and pyrene, C16H10. The rst two are light PAHs (with 2 or 3
aromatic rings) belonging to the class IV of the ECN taxonomy [14],
i.e. that of tar condensing at intermediate temperatures (218  C and
336  C, respectively) even at relatively low concentration; pyrene is
instead a heavy PAH (with 5 rings) belonging to class V, i.e. that of
tar condensing at relatively high-temperatures (404  C for pyrene)
at low concentrations. The compounds of these classes 4 and 5 are a
major cause of condensation, and then of tar plugging in pipelines
and fouling in energy conversion devices [9,11]. The present stateof-the-art of mechanical, catalytic and thermal methods for tar
reduction [11] indicates the strong difculties in selecting and

designing a proper fuel gas cleaning system, in terms of plant

complexity and availability, but also of overall costs and efciency.
This suggests that the nal conguration of the FBG for the tested
MPWs could conveniently evaluate the possibility of a heat gasier
conguration, with the direct and complete recovery of tar chemical energy.
4. Concluding remarks
The technical feasibility of the air gasication process of two
mixed plastic wastes obtained from an industrial process has been
investigated in a pilot scale bubbling uidized bed reactor, having a
maximum thermal output of 400 kW. The unit was operated under
conditions of thermal and chemical steady state, for values of
equivalence ratio ranging from 0.2 to 0.3. The temperature of
gasication reaction zone varied in the range 840e930  C, which
is sufciently high to allow an efcient carbon conversion. The
obtained producer gas results of valuable quality for energy applications. There are interesting perspectives for the commercial

Fig. 8. Material ow analysis for the tests reported in Table 2. All the data are reported in kg/h (I: Import ow; E: Export ow).

742

U. Arena, F. Di Gregorio / Energy 68 (2014) 735e743

Fig. 9. Substance ow analysis for the tests reported in Table 2 related to the Zinc element. All the data are reported in mg/h (I: Import ow; E: Export ow).

viability of the process. It can be conveniently included in a heat

gasier conguration, furthermore taking advantage of the chemical energy of tar compounds. On the contrary, a power gasier
conguration with reciprocating engines or gas turbines will be
technically and economically feasible only if and when innovative
gas polishing systems (such as catalytic lters, oil scrubbers or
plasma devices) will improve their overall sustainability.

The exibility of the uidized bed gasier appears remarkable,

conrming that it is likely the preferred technology for the gasication of high heating value mixed plastic wastes.
The differences in the gasication behaviour of the two plastic
wastes have been explained on the basis of the fuel structure and
composition, taking into account the main performance parameters,
such as the heating value of the producer gas and its contaminants.

Fig. 10. Feedstock energy ow analysis. All the data are reported in kJ/s (I: Import ow; E: Export ow).

U. Arena, F. Di Gregorio / Energy 68 (2014) 735e743

Further experimental investigations should be performed in

order to better and exhaustively understand the process element
partitioning, in particular for low-boiling point heavy metals, when
a plastic waste is gasied in a uidized bed. Preliminary results for
zinc appear of interest because there is no evidence of this element
in the bed material and ash after the gasication tests. If these results will be conrmed under a wider range of operating conditions, the next step will be performing a series of leachability tests
to verify the direct recyclability of the solid residues.
Acknowledgements
The study was in part carried out with the nancial support and
in the framework of project LIFE 12 ENV/IT/000611 VIRGIN, coordinated by Fater S.p.A. Data reported in the paper are original
calculations developed by the authors and cannot be considered as
ofcial information of European Community-Life project or Fater
S.p.A. The authors are indebted with Dr. Donato Santoro that performed part of the off-line laboratory analyses.
References
[1] Brunner PH. Clean cycles and safe nal sinks. Waste Manag Res 2009;28:
575e6.
[2] Al-Salem SM, Lettieri P, Baeyens J. Recycling and recovery routes of plastic
solid waste (PSW): a review. Waste Manag 2009;29:2625e43.
[3] Arena U, Di Gregorio F. A waste management planning based on substance
ow analysis. Resour Conserv Recycl, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.
2013.05.008.
[4] McDougall F, White P, Franke M, Hindle P. Integrated solid waste management: a life cycle inventory. 2nd ed. Blackwell Science Ltd.; 2001.
[5] Psomopoulos CS, Bourka A, Themelis NJ. Waste-to-energy: a review of the
status and benets in USA. Waste Manag 2009;29:1718e24.
[6] Arena U, Di Gregorio F. Element partitioning in combustion- and gasicationbased waste-to-energy units. Waste Manag 2013;33:1142e50.
[7] Basu P. Biomass gasication design handbook. Elsevier Inc.; 2010. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-374988-8.00005-2.
[8] Arena U. Process and technological aspects of municipal solid waste gasication. A review. Waste Manag 2012;32:625e39.
[9] Arena U. Fluidized bed gasication. In: Scala F, editor. Fluidized-bed technologies for near-zero emission combustion and gasication. Woodhead Publishing;
2013, ISBN 978-0-85709-541-1; 2013. pp. 765e812. http://dx.doi.org/10.1533/
9780857098801.3.765 [chapter 17].

743

[10] Devi L, Ptasinski KJ, Janssen FJJG. A review of the primary measures for tar
elimination in biomass gasication processes. Biomass Bioenergy 2003;24:
125e40.
[11] Anis S, Zainal ZA. Tar reduction in biomass producer gas via mechanical,
catalytic and thermal methods: a review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2011;15:
2355e77.
[12] Cho M-H, Mun T-Y, Kim J-S. Air gasication of mixed plastic wastes using
calcined dolomite and activated carbon in a two-stage gasier to reduce tar.
Energy 2013;53:299e305.
[13] Cho M-H, Mun T-Y, Kim J-S. Production of low-tar producer gas from air
gasication of mixed plastic waste in a two-stage gasier using olivine combined with activated carbon. Energy 2013;58:688e94.
[14] Van Paasen SVB, Kiel JHA. Tar formation in a uidized bed gasier: impact of fuel
properties and operating conditions [Report ECN-C-04-013]. the Netherlands:
Petten; 2004.
[15] Brunner PH. Materials ow analysis and the ultimate sink. J Ind Ecol 2004;8:
4e7.
[16] Felder RM, Rousseau RW. Elementary principles of chemical processes. 3rd ed.
J. Wiley & Sons; 2000.
[17] Channiwala SA, Parikh PP. A unied correlation for estimating HHV of solid,
liquid and gaseous fuels. Fuel 2002;81:1051e63.
[18] Arena U, Di Gregorio F, Santonastasi M. A techno-economic comparison between two design conguration for a small scale, biomass-to-energy gasication based system. Chem Eng J 2010;162:580e90.
[19] Kirnbauer F, Wilk V, Hofbauer H. The positive effects of bed material coating
on tar reduction in a dual uidized bed gasier. Fuel 2012;95:553e62.
[20] Arena U, Di Gregorio F, Amorese C, Mastellone ML. A techno-economic
comparison of uidized bed gasication of two mixed plastic wastes. Waste
Manag 2011;31:1494e504.
[21] Di Gregorio F, Zaccariello L. Fluidized bed gasication of a packaging derived
fuel: energetic, environmental and economic performances for waste-toenergy plants. Energy 2012;42:331e41.
[22] Arena U, Zaccariello L, Mastellone ML. Tar removal during the uidized bed
gasication of a plastic waste. Waste Manag 2009;29:783e91.
[23] Arena U, Di Gregorio F. Gasication of a solid recovered fuel in a pilot scale
uidized bed reactor. Fuel 2014;117:528e36.
[24] Gmez-Barea A, Ollero P, Leckner B. Optimization of char and tar conversion
in uidized bed biomass gasiers. Fuel 2013;103:42e52.
[25] Dunnu G, Panopoulos KD, Karellas S, Maier J, Touliou S, Koufodimos G, et al.
The solid recovered fuel Stabilat: characteristics and uidised bed gasication
tests. Fuel 2012;93:273e83.
[26] Arena U, Zaccariello L, Mastellone ML. Fluidized bed gasication of wastederived fuels. Waste Manag 2010;30:1212e9.
[27] Mastellone ML, Zaccariello L, Arena U. Co-gasication of coal, plastic waste
and wood in a bubbling uidized bed reactor. Fuel 2010;89:2991e3000.
[28] Tanigaki N, Motoyama K, Osada M, Jung BS, Lee YB. Operating performance of
gasication and melting facility in Korea. In: 5th int. conf. on combustion,
incineration/pyrolysis and emission control (i-CIPEC 2008), Chiang Mai,
Thailand, 16e19 December 2008; 2008.