Mechanism of soot and particulate matter formation during high temperature pyrolysis and gasification of waste derived from MSW

Wu Yang; Rajender Gupta; Zijian Song; Ben Wang; Lushi Sun

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2024.04.025

Mechanism of soot and particulate matter formation during high temperature pyrolysis and gasification of waste derived from MSW

Waste Manag. 2024 Apr 16:182:21-31. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.04.025. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Wu Yang¹, Rajender Gupta², Zijian Song³, Ben Wang¹, Lushi Sun⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
² Department of Chemical and Material Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1H9, Canada.
³ Resource and Environmental Branch, China National Institute of Standardization, Beijing 100191, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. Electronic address: sunlushi@hust.edu.cn.

PMID: 38631177
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.04.025

Abstract

This research investigates the formation mechanism of soot and particulate matter during the pyrolysis and gasification of waste derived from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in a laboratory scale drop tube furnace. Compared with CO₂ gasification atmosphere, more ultrafine particles (PM_0.2, aerodynamic diameter less than 0.2 μm) were generated in N₂ atmosphere at 1200℃, which were mainly composed of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), graphitic carbonaceous soot and volatile alkali salts. High reaction temperatures promote the formation of hydrocarbon gaseous products and their conversion to PAHs, which ultimately leads to the formation of soot particles. The soot particles generated by waste derived from MSW pyrolysis and gasification both have high specific surface area and well-developed pore structure. Compared with pyrolysis, the soot generated by gasification of waste derived from MSW had smaller size and higher proportion of inorganic components. The higher pyrolysis temperature led to the collapse of the mesoporous structure of submicron particles, resulting in a decrease in total pore volume and an increase in specific surface area. Innovatively, this research provides an explanation for the effect of reaction temperature/ CO₂ on the formation pathways and physicochemical properties of soot and fine particulate matter.

Keywords: Gasification; MSW; PAHs; Particulate matter (PM); Pyrolysis; Soot.