Techno-economic feasibility assessment of sorption enhanced gasification of municipal solid waste for hydrogen production

Sorption-enhanced gasification of municipal solid waste for hydrogen production: a comparative techno-economic analysis using limestone, dolomite and doped limestone

“…Besides the syngas composition, the carbonation temperature (637 °C and 643 °C) and sorbent looping ratio (7.0 and 8.6) were used to validate the process. The SEG process validation is described in detail by Santos and Hanak [ 27 ].…”

“…A range of technologies for thermochemical conversion of MSW have been considered, including plasma gasification [ 17 , 18 ], chemical looping combustion [ 19 ], gasification [ 20 , 21 ], gasification integrated with simultaneous chemical and calcium looping [ 22 ], and sorption-enhanced gasification (SEG) [ 13 , 23 – 27 ]. MSW SEG was assessed by He et al [ 23 ] in a lab-scale fixed bed reactor at the gasification temperature of 900 °C.…”

“…Yet, this study did not consider the deterioration of the sorbent performance, which is a known challenge of using limestone as a sorbent [ 28 ], because the set-up was operated in a semi-batch mode. Finally, Santos et al [ 27 ] have compared the techno-economic performance of MSW steam SEG with that of conventional steam gasification for H 2 production. The authors have shown that MSW SEG could deliver a higher H 2 production efficiency (48.7%) than conventional gasification (47.7%).…”

“…Moreover, the majority of studies that assessed SEG to date have solely focused on syngas production through MSW gasification with in-situ CO 2 capture, disregarding the sorbent regeneration step that is essential for the continuous operation of the SEG process. Santos and Hanak [ 27 ] have reported for the first time the techno-economic feasibility of a cyclic SEG of MSW for H 2 production. However, that study only assessed the H 2 production costs for SEG of MSW using natural limestone as sorbent and, therefore, no comparative study has been carried out for other sorbents.…”

“…However, that study only assessed the H 2 production costs for SEG of MSW using natural limestone as sorbent and, therefore, no comparative study has been carried out for other sorbents. Martínez et al [ 26 ] and Santos and Hanak [ 27 ] have shown that SEG using limestone is a feasible technology to convert waste-to-fuel, despite the fact that the economic assessment performed by Santos and Hanak [ 27 ] has shown it is still not competitive. Yet, dolomite and doped limestone may be an attractive alternative to natural limestone sorbent, promoting the deployment of SEG of MSW.…”