Perspective of Msw to Power Generation Through Gas Engine
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PERSPECTIVE OF MSW TO POWER GENERATION THROUGH GAS ENGINE DEZHEN. CHEN*, MIN. YANG* *Thermal & Environmental Engineering Institute, Mechanical Engineering College, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China. E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY: In this paper perspective of MSW to power generation through gas engine in China is evaluated. The waste to energy (WtE) plant based on thermal chemical conversion and gas engine technology include four important issues: preparation of MSW materials, reliable gasification or pyrolysis reactors, gas product processing and availability of gas engine. The state of the arts of these issues have been surveyed and the challenge for implementing WtE process based on gas engine technology has been analysed. It has been found that MSW pretreatment machinery is relatively mature; the gas engine products suitable for syngas are also available. While economic and reliable gasifiers and syngas scrubbing systems are very limited and they are the core challenge for implementing WtE process through gas engine. 1. INTRODUCTION Most of municipal solid wastes (MSW) in big cities in China have been safely disposed through landfilling, incineration and other combined technologies. By the end of year of 2015, 60.2 wt.% of the MSW was disposed in landfills, 29.8 wt.% was incinerated and 1.8 wt.% was composted, there was still 8.2 wt.% of MSW piling on their generating sites and remaining untreated (Speciality committee of urban domestic refuse of CAEPI, 2016). Almost all of the incineration plants in China are equipped with boilers to recover heat released during incineration in form of steam for power generation. However in the small cities and countryside where the generation of MSW are less than 600 tonnes per day, setting up new waste to energy (WtE) plants based on incineration and Rankine cycle technology is difficult due to the economic constraints. And sanitary landfills are also difficult to find in the small cities, where cultivated lands are very close to the town. To safely dispose MSW and take full advantage of preferential policy for WtE in the small cities and countryside as well as in big cities where distributed MSW disposal is desired to avoided long distance transportation, WtE plants based on gasification and gas engine technologies are desired due to the flexibility, high efficiency and lower investment compared to the incineration plants with steam boilers. Although WtE process through gas engine fed with biogas is widely applied, few experiences are available by feeding syngas from MSW thermal chemical conversion processes, due to the fact that gas components of the syngas from gasification or pyrolysis processes are varying and their cleaning system are complicated. In this work the perspective of power generation with MSW derived syngas through gas engine in China will be evaluated by reviewing the maturity of four key issues involved: preparation of MSW materials, reliable gasification or pyrolysis reactors, gas product processing and availability of gas engines. Proceedings Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium/ 2 - 6 October 2017 S. Margherita di Pula, Cagliari, Italy / © 2017 by CISA Publisher, Italy Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017 2. PREPARATION OF MSW MATERIALS FOR GASIFICATION PROCESSES Different from mass burn incineration, for which MSW pretreatment is not necessary; MSW pretreatment is required before feeding to the pyrolysis or gasification reactors to ensure the safe and steady operation. The pretreatment often includes sorting and crushing of MSW, to remove unsuitable components and reduce size. With the development and wide application of fluidized bed incinerators in China for decades, MSW pretreatment facilities including sorting and crushing machinery have been developed and becoming mature in China's market. Table 1 lists the important crushing machinery in China. Table 1 Important crushing machinery for MSW. Equipment Role Supplier Primary shredder Used for crushing non-pretreated domestic and bulk waste, Lindner Recyclingtech for MSW commercial and industrial waste, mixed construction site waste, GmbH, Austria (JUPITER wood and straw, plastics of all kind, wastepaper, paper rolls, model) rubber and tires, textiles, electronic waste, cables etc. Jano Recycling High performance shredder with a capacity of up to 70 t/h; Technology (Suzhou) Co., the output size is from 70 to 600 mm. Ltd, including Model Typical products: double-shaft comprehensive shredder; 1PSM0816 and model double-shaft shear shredder. 1PSM0822. Secondary Used for crushing pre-shredded domestic and bulk waste, Lindner Recyclingtech Shredder commercial and industrial waste, mixed construction site GmbH, Austria (KOMET waste, wood and straw, plastics of all kind, wastepaper, paper Model or POWER rolls, rubber, tires, textiles and electronic scrap etc. Especially KOMET Model) used for producing RDF or SRF. Jano Recycling It is high performance shredder with a capacity of up to 28 Technology (Suzhou) Co., t/h. The output size is from 10 to 150 mm. Ltd. (Model 1PSX0828) Universal Shredder Used for crushing domestic and bulk wastes, commercial and Lindner Recyclingtech industrial wastes, mixed construction site wastes, wood and GmbH, Austria straw, plastics of all kind, foils, paper rolls, rubber, textiles and (UNIVERSO Model) electronic scrap etc. Harden Machinery, It is robust shredder with a capacity of up to 60 t/h. The Zhongshan, China output size is from 20 to 600 mm. Mobile universal Robust two shaft shredder for rootstocks, trunk wood, Lindner Recyclingtech Shredder commercial and bulk waste, scrap metal, electronic scrap, light GmbH, Austria scrap, aluminum scrap etc. The capacity is up to 150 t/h. (URRACO Model) Output size is from 150 to 500 mm. Hydrostatic driven With aggressive knives made of Hardox steel, the PreShred M & J Industries Horsens PreShred shredder shredder is capable of effectively and reliably shredding Denamrk A/S virtually any type of material. This waste shredder is designed (Model 4000 Serials) to meet the special needs of plants in which the incoming material varies greatly in terms of size and composition and can contain unknown quantities of steel, stones and concrete, can also easily shred bulky wastes. For the sorting machinery the products mainly include bag opener, drum screen, ballistic separator, disc screen, air separator, permanent magnetic iron separator and eddy current separator for non-ferrous metals, etc, the typical suppliers include BRT-Hartner GmbH, Germany, Jano Recycling Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd, Shanghai Jiming Enviromental Protection Equipment Co. Ltd, Sichuan Leiming Biological Environmental Protection Engineering Co. Ltd. Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017 Presently there is a trend to use gasification or pyrolysis technology to replace incineration to dispose MSW in small cities in China, for example in Penglai, Shangdong province a MSW treatment plant was formerly planned to install two incinerators with capacity of 300 t/d, but now is changed to adopt pyrolysis and gasification technology with total investment of 157,330,000 RMB, including 12 gas engines of 1WM. Very recently in Anhui province, in a MSW treatment plant with capacity of 500 t/d, gasification technology has been employed after careful environmental assessment. With reference to MSW pretreatment for fluidized bed incineration, the typical pretreatment diagram for preparing MSW for gasification or pyrolysis reactors is shown in Figure 1. Generally the investment of the pretreatment facility is around 70 to 100 thousand yuan RMB for per tonne of MSW, almost accounting one third of the total facility investment for a thermal chemical conversion plant. Imported facility is more reliable but more expensive. Figure 1 Pretreatment diagram for preparing MSW for gasification or pyrolysis reactors 3. MSW GASIFIERS AND PYROLYSIS SYSTEM OPERATING IN CHINA The MSW gasifiers operating in China include fixed bed reactors with rotary grate and rotary kiln reactors. Most of them only produce syngas of poor quality with very small lower heat value (LHV) that cannot meet up with the requirements for feeding gas engine. But pyrolysis- gasification combined process can generate syngas with LHV higher than 15 MJ/Nm3 (Wang et al., 2017); however this gas product from the combined process is characterized with high H2 content at the same time, which arouses special requirements for the gas engine. Table 2 lists the typical gasification and pyrolysis plants operating in China. Although fluidized bed reactors have the merits of large heat capacity, uniform temperature field and intensive mixing of the air and the MSW, making the fast reaction and high quality syngas product possible, they are not available in China for MSW gasification or pyrolysis. From Table 2 it can be also seen that gas engine is seldom equipped as a final syngas consumer for the available gasification or pyrolysis processes, the only case is still under testing. The reason behind this situation lies in the three facts: 1) the syngas quality is poor from gasification Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017 process; Table 2 Typical gasification and pyrolysis plants operating in China Reactor Characteristics Applications Fixed bed reactor Simple and reliable. The updraft and Xianju County,