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DISPOSAL OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE BY PLASMA GASIFICATION

Conference Paper · September 2017

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 WASTES: Solutions, Treatments and Opportunities
4th International Conference
September 25th – 26th 2017

DISPOSAL OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE BY PLASMA GASIFICATION

1 2
G. Dinc and S. Dursun
1 Environmental Engineering Department, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey,
e-mail: dinc.gamze17@gmail.com
2 Environmental Engineering Department, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey,
e-mail: sdursun@selcuk.edu.tr

ABSTRACT
Management of municipal solid waste is becoming difficult day by day because of its
complicated composition and increasing quantity. As for decision of disposal method for
municipal solid waste, it is one of the most critical and difficult issues in waste
management. There are many disposal methods, such as landfilling, composting,
gasification, pyrolysis and plasma gasification, to achieve effective waste management,
but plasma gasification is more innovative and environment friendly technology
comparing to others. In plasma gasification process, almost any materials, except
radioactive materials, are decomposed to their basic molecular structure in an oxygen
starved environment. That is, materials do not combusted as incineration method. In
plasma gasification process, there are mainly two byproducts namely glass-like matters
and syngas which can be used for producing energy. This paper mainly gives a review on
plasma gasification method, its application for disposal of municipal solid waste and
comparison plasma gasification method with other disposal techniques as well as
benefits of plasma gasification technique.

Keywords: Municipal solid waste, Disposal techniques, Plasma, Plasma gasification,

Advantages of plasma gasification

INTRODUCTION
Useless and unwanted solid materials are called as solid waste which can be categorized as
municipal, industrial, medical, sewage sludge and agriculture [1]. Municipal solid waste (MSW), one
of these solid waste categories, can be defined as wastes which mainly come from schools, homes
and businesses [2]. These wastes should be managed effectively to prevent adverse impacts of it
to environment [3]. However, municipal solid waste management is becoming difficult day by day
because of its complicated composition and increasing quantity based on population growth [4].
In municipal solid waste management, selection of appropriate disposal method is one of the
critical issues for preventing future problems and saving money. Although there are many
conventional disposal methods used for treating municipal solid waste, the most common methods
are landfilling, composting and incineration [3]. However, all these three methods have some
critical disadvantages so they are not very useful for effective municipal waste management [5].
While these disadvantages for composting method are very slow process and difficulties in
segregation, disadvantages for incineration are formation of ash and flue gas which has to be
cleaned from particulate and gaseous pollutant. As for landfilling method, main disadvantage is
releasing toxic gases, such as methane, to the atmosphere. Therefore, new alternative
environmental friendly methods, like plasma gasification, have been started to use instead of these
conventional methods [5]. Within the scope of this paper, details of plasma gasification method and
its purported benefits comparing with other conventional disposal methods for municipal solid
waste management was examined. Moreover, incineration, which is one of the common methods
for municipal solid waste disposal, and plasma gasification technique was compared in more detail.
PLASMA GASIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
Plasma
Plasma can be defined as fourth state of matter which comprises of free electrons, ions and
neutral particles. Plasma includes charged particles and electrons, but it is accepted as neutral.
These charged particles provide that plasma is thermally and electrically conductive. In addition to
these, it can be ionized both partially and fully. In case of existence enough and continuous energy
in the medium, plasma can be formed from gas. This energy can be electrical, thermal, UV light
etc. [6].

Municipal Solid Waste Management with Plasma Gasification

In waste management, plasma technology can be used as an effective method since it has
highly reactive species as well as acquisition of very high temperature. There are five notable
classes of processes which are the main for plasma systems in the waste management. These are
plasma pyrolysis, plasma combustion, plasma vitrification, plasma gasification and plasma
polishing. Among these, the most common process is plasma gasification [7]. Plasma gasification
is a process which waste materials are decomposed to their basic molecular structure in an
oxygen-starved environment [4]. It can be defined as an advanced gasification process. Wastes do
not combusted in plasma gasification technology so it is different method from incineration [7]. In
traditional plasma treatment processes, there is a plasma furnace which two electrodes, namely
plasma arc torch, are inserted in and electric currents are moved through the electrodes, producing
an arc. Plasma furnace is heated to very high temperatures thanks to this arc and wastes are
decomposed with these high temperatures [4,5]. The byproducts of this technology are syngas and
glass-like materials [4]. While syngas is produced by converting carbon-based matters into solid
wastes, glass-like materials (i.e. vitrified slag), is produced by inorganic matters and minerals of
solid waste [2].
Treatment of municipal solid waste with plasma arc method first was put forward by Dr.
Camacho in 1973. He demonstrated that byproducts, which are formed as a result of treatment of
municipal solid waste with plasma technology, would be used for different purposes. While syngas
can be used to produce energy, glass-like materials can be used as aggregate for construction.
Additionally, it was found that there is no ash formation at the end of the plasma gasification of
municipal solid wastes so it is very important advantage over other thermal disposal methods, such
as incineration, in the municipal solid waste disposal [4].

Comparison of Plasma Gasification Technology with Conventional Disposal Methods

Plasma gasification technology is a method which has many purported advantages in waste
management in comparison to other conventional disposal method. Plasma gasification method
can be applied to almost all kind of wastes, except nuclear wastes, however; other conventional
methods may not [4]. Additionally, it requires minimal presorting of solid wastes unlike other
conventional methods such as incineration [2]. Plasma gasification technology is more
environmentally friendly method than the other treatment methods in terms of by-products. While
syngas, which mainly comprise CO and H2, can be used for producing energy, vitrified slag can be
utilized to generate rock wool, floor tiles, roof tiles etc. [2]. In addition to producing environmental
friendly by-product, this technology has important advantages over conventional methods in terms
of greenhouse gas emission. While high amounts of harmful gases are sent to the atmosphere in
incineration or landfilling method, much lower emission is produced in plasma gasification
technique [7]. Therefore, plasma gasification can be thought as an effective alternative method that
can be used instead of landfilling and incineration method due to these environmental advantages.
In addition to environmental advantages of plasma gasification method over conventional disposal
techniques, it has economic advantages too. Plasma gasification technique has more revenue
sources than the other techniques and these revenue sources can be generally stated as
production of electricity, tipping fees, sales of slag and recyclables [5]. Among these revenue
sources, generation of electricity can be very important factor. For example, while 816 kWh
electricity can be produced from one ton municipal solid waste by plasma gasification method, 544
kWh electricity can be generated from same amount of MSW by mass burn technology [7].
Therefore, this difference affects revenue amount significantly.
Plasma gasification technology especially has many advantages in comparison with incineration
method one of common conventional techniques for municipal waste disposal. In Table 1,
 incineration and plasma gasification method is compared with each other based on selected seven
criteria.

Table 1. Comparison of incineration and plasma gasification method [7]

Criteria Incineration Plasma Gasification
Emission of pollutant High Very low
Material recovery Lower Higher
Energy recovery Lower Higher
Formation of ash Exist Not exist
Disposal cost for by-products Exist Not exist
Moisture of waste Important Not important
Sorting of waste before feeding Important Not Important

CONCLUSION
Amount of municipal solid waste is increasing day by day therefore its management and disposal is
becoming difficult. Nowadays, although there are several disposal techniques for municipal solid
waste, new techniques started to be considered because these disposal techniques have some
difficulties, such as producing toxic emissions, difficulties in segregation and formation of ash, for
effective municipal solid waste management. One of these new techniques is plasma gasification.
It is more innovative and environmentally friendly method than the others. Moreover, plasma
gasification has many advantages which provide almost complete disposal of municipal solid waste
in every aspect since by-products of it can be used for different purposes. While syngas can be
used for generation of energy, vitrified slag can be used to generate rock wool, floor tiles, roof tiles
etc. In addition to these advantages, it has also economic advantages. Revenue sources of plasma
gasification are more than other disposal techniques. In conclusion, disposal of municipal solid
wastes with plasma gasification method has remarkable advantages in comparison to other
methods in terms of both environmental and economic.

References
[1] G. Tchobanoglous, F. Kreith, Handbook of Solid Waste Management, second ed., McGraw-
Hill, New York, 2002.
[2] G.C. Young, MunicipaL Solid Waste to Energy Conversion Processes, first ed., Wiley, New
Jersey, 2010.
[3] M. Rajasekhar, N.V. Rao, G.C. Rao, G. Priyadarshini, N.J Kumar, Energy generation from
municipal solid waste by innovative technologies – plasma gasification, Procedia Materials
Science 10 (2015) 513-518.
[4] P.M. Lal, C.J. Singh, Plasma gasification: A sustainable solution for the municipal solid waste
management in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, International Journal of Environmental
Sciences 3 (2012) 305-319.
[5] A. Ojha, A.C. Reuben, D. Sharma, Solid waste management in developing countries through
plasma arc gasification- An alternative approach, APCBEE Procedia 1 (2012) 193-198.
[6] A. Sanlisoy, M.O. Carpinlioglu, A review on plasma gasification for solid waste disposal,
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 42 (2017) 1361-1365.
[7] K. Moustakas, M. Loizidou, Solid waste management through the application of thermal
methods, in: E.S Kumar (Ed.), Waste Management, InTech., Croatia, 2010, pp. 89-125.

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