Technical evaluation of plasma-assisted entrained flow gasification for hydrogen-rich syngas production from waste and biomass

Plasma-assisted entrained flow gasification (EFG) offers a potential solution to convert low-quality biomass and waste feedstocks into high-quality syngas. This study, therefore, evaluates the theoretical technical potential of steam plasma-assisted EFG using a novel Aspen Plus model (eGas), which integrates the simulation of thermodynamic plasma properties and dissociation phenomena into Aspen Plus. Simulation results show that increasing the electrification ratio (ELR) to 0.48, corresponding to full steam plasma gasification, raises the H2/CO ratio to 1.03—more than double that of oxygen-blown EFG—while improving carbon conversion efficiency (CCE) to 95% and reducing syngas CO2 content by 79 %. The hydrogen-specific energy demand (HSED) reaches 181 MJ/kg H2, outperforming proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis (198 MJ/kg H2) for H2 addition to syngas. Plasma power conversion efficiencies exceed 85 %. Validation against NASA CEA and Cantera confirms the model’s accuracy. This highlights plasma-assisted EFG as a promising future technology for hydrogen-rich syngas production.     «

Plasma-assisted entrained flow gasification (EFG) offers a potential solution to convert low-quality biomass and waste feedstocks into high-quality syngas. This study, therefore, evaluates the theoretical technical potential of steam plasma-assisted EFG using a novel Aspen Plus model (eGas), which integrates the simulation of thermodynamic plasma properties and dissociation phenomena into Aspen Plus. Simulation results show that increasing the electrification ratio (ELR) to 0.48, corresponding t...     »