Waste Gasification Technologies: A Brief Overview

This paper aims to briefly overview gasification technologies of biomass and heterogeneous wastes as a means for syngas production. For this purpose, an overview of the existing technologies, their main advantages, limitations, and costs, as well as commercial plants and projects (lower TRL) operating with these technologies and syngas applications is presented. The type of technology and operating parameters should be selected considering the quality of the syngas as it will dictate its end use. Syngas quality is determined by the combination of feedstock properties, type of technology and process operating conditions, and the scale of operation. For smaller projects with a capacity of up to 10 MWth, fixed-bed technologies have been a recurring choice, while fluidized bed reactors can have an installed capacity above 100 MWth and are, therefore, more suitable for medium- and large-scale projects. Fluidized bed gasification technology supports feedstock flexibility, has scale-up potential, and presents relatively low cost, making it a suitable solution and a frequent choice for heterogeneous waste gasification in medium- or large-scale projects. Commercializing waste gasification technology is already a reality. However, more efforts need to be made so that pilot and demonstration projects can overcome the technological and economic problems and move towards commercialization.