Open AccessProcess modeling of hydrogen production from municipal solid waste
Author(s) -
C.B. Thorsness
Publication year - 1995
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/125403
Subject(s) - municipal solid waste , hydrogen production , process (computing) , production (economics) , waste management , environmental science , process engineering , hydrogen , computer science , engineering , chemistry , economics , organic chemistry , operating system , macroeconomics
The ASPEN PLUS commercial simulation software has been used to develop a process model for a conceptual process to convert municipal solid waste (MSW) to hydrogen. The process consists of hydrothermal treatment of the MSW in water to create a slurry suitable as feedstock for an oxygen blown Texaco gasifier. A method of reducing the complicated MSW feed material to a manageable set of components is outlined along with a framework for modeling the stoichiometric changes associated with the hydrothermal treatment process. Model results indicate that 0.672 kmol/s of hydrogen can be produced from the processing of 30 kg/s (2600 tonne/day) of raw MSW. A number of variations on the basic processing parameters are explored and indicate that there is a clear incentive to reduce the inert fraction in the processed slurry feed and that cofeeding a low value heavy oil may be economically attractive