4-E analyses of plasma gasification integrated chemical looping reforming system for power and hydrogen co-generation using bakelite and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene based plastic waste feedstocks

• Published in: Energy conversion and management 2022-11, Vol.271, p.116320, Article 116320
• Main Authors: Mallick, Roni, Prabu, V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 4-E analyses; Chemical looping reforming; Computer keyboard plastic waste; Electrical switch waste; Plasma gasification
• ISSN: 0196-8904; 1879-2227
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2022.116320

[Display omitted] •A novel plasma gasification integrated chemical looping reformer is proposed.•Bakelite and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) based plastics were used.•4-E analyses includes energy, exergy, economic and environment were performed.•Hydrogen production efficiency in the range of 62–66 MW is estimated.•Levelized cost of hydrogen is found as 1.30 $/kg (ABS) and 2.25 $/kg for bakelite. The present work studies a novel hybrid system of reforming using chemical looping technology integrated plasma gasification for the generation of hydrogen and electricity (via gas, air and steam turbines). Different power plant scenarios using two feedstocks such as electrical switch wastes (ESW) and computer keyboard plastic wastes (CKPW) working at two pressure levels (1 bar and 15 bar) were considered. A detailed investigation of the proposed process was performed using Aspen plus software based on 4-E (energy, exergy, economic and environmental) analyses. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to analyze the impact of feed ratio (feed gas/metal) in fuel reactor (FR), steam reactor (SR) and air reactor (AR) on their respective gas and metal oxide flow rate, and operating temperature. Based on the simulated results, the preferred ratios in terms of complete utilization of syngas, steam and air, and the high purity hydrogen in FR, SR and AR is 0.063, 0.5 and 0.188, respectively. It was found that the net overall energy efficiency is found higher for CKPW (72.35 %) than ESW (64.92 %) at the base case (i.e. 0 % excess OC or air concerning all plant scenarios), while the net overall exergy efficiencies were lower by 15 % for ESW and 3 % for CKPW on average, compared to energy efficiencies. In addition, the cost of electricity for all cases remains below 111 $/MWh for ESW and 76 $/MWh for CKPW while the LCOH lies in the range of 1.7–2.3 $/kg for ESW and 0.8–1.7 $/kg for CKPW. Likewise, the power plants fed with CKPW assured higher sustainability from the ecological point of view as all carbon was captured and stored.