Effects of moisture content and CaO on municipal solid waste pyrolysis in a fixed bed reactor

Experiments of municipal solid waste (MSW) pyrolysis were carried out in a self-design fixed bed reactor. Polyethylene (PE), paper pulp and bamboo (chopsticks) were adopted to represent three major components in MSW in the experiments. The effects of moisture content (0, 50% and 66.7%) and CaO (0,2 g and 4g) on product composition and lower heating value (LHV) of syngas were investigated. The temperature was set at 900 degrees C and each MSW sample was 4g in each test. The results indicated that increasing moisture content led to lower H-2 concentration but higher tar yield in paper pulp and bamboo pyrolysis, but the influence was converse in PE pyrolysis; the addition of CaO promoted H2 production but reduced tar yield; the maximum LHV of syngas was achieved at zero moisture content in bamboo and paper pulp pyrolysis, while that was achieved at 66.7% moisture content in PE pyrolysis. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.