Air gasification of mixed plastic wastes using calcined dolomite and activated carbon in a two-stage gasifier to reduce tar

In this experiment, air gasification was conducted with a fraction of mixed plastic wastes using a two-stage gasifier. Calcined dolomite as a bed material and activated carbon as a tar-cracking additive were simultaneously used for the production of a producer gas containing low tar and high hydrogen. The effects of the bed material, equivalence ratio (ER), amount of activated carbon, and temperatures in two reaction zones (the upper- and lower-reactor) on the composition of producer gas and amount of tar generated were investigated. When the amount of activated carbon increased from 0 to 900 g using calcined dolomite as the bed material, the concentrations of H₂ and CO in the producer gas increased sharply from 14.9 to 26.1 vol% and from 9.4 to 16.8 vol%, respectively. When 900 g of activated carbon was applied, the total tar amount was about 96% less than that obtained with only silica sand as the bed material. The maximum Lower Heating Value (LHV) of the producer gas was about 13.4 MJ/Nm³.