Preface

The combustion of conventional fossil fuels is the largest contributing factor to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The development and use of sustainable and alternative fuels (syngas, biogas, biodiesel, bio-oil, hydrogen) derived from sources other than petroleum is needed due to the limited fossil fuel resources, the need for reduction of atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions, energy security, and to meet the future high energy demand due to population growth. New alternative fuels that can be produced locally and derived from renewable sources will be more sustainable compared to fossil fuels. Alternative and renewable fuels can be produced using different thermochemical and bio-chemical processes. Gasification is a thermochemical process used to produce syngas fuel (mainly hydrogen and carbon dioxide) from renewable (biomass) and conventional (coal) sources. The syngas fuels produced from the gasification process can be used for different applications: power generation (combustion of syngas fuel in gas turbine engines), heating, and transportation (internal combustion engines).

This book intends to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the current technologies, methods, and strategies of syngas fuel production, characterization, and application.

> **Chaouki Ghenai** Associate Professor, Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering Department (SREE), College of Engineering, Coordinator - Sustainable Energy Development Research Group, Research Institute of Science and Engineering (RISE), Chairman – Research Funding Department, VCRGS University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

### **Abrar Inayat**

Assistant Professor, Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering Department (SREE), College of Engineering, Member of the Sustainable Energy Development Research Group, Research Institute of Science and Engineering (RISE), University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

**1**

Section 1

Syngas Fuel

Section 1 Syngas Fuel

**3**

**Chapter 1**

**Abstract**

**1. Introduction**

Waste to Energy and Syngas

Getting energy from waste is one of the best alternatives for sustainable handling of waste. Mass burning is generally the preferred option. Usually, this applies to large facilities where more than 500 tons of waste per day are treated. Syngas production from waste has also been tried with mixed success. This chapter reviews the situation in this field and proposes an alternative based on co-combustion with coal as a possible route, applied preferably to treat municipal solid waste (MSW) and biosolids from small- or medium-sized municipalities, producing less than 200 tons of waste per day, with the aim of generating electric energy. For this, a theo-

*Enrique Posada and Gilmar Saenz*

retical model is proposed and applied to a specific case.

**Keywords:** waste to energy, municipal solid waste, design, modeling,

syngas composition, technologies, experience, electric energy, coal, co-combustion

This chapter deals with the possibilities of making use of municipal solid waste (MSW) in combined gasification systems with coal to help solving two situations. One is the need for a more sustainable use of highly available coal resources and the other is the need for a more sustainable handling of domestic solid wastes, which are not properly disposed. When these two combine, as is the case for a country like

Colombia, there are real spaces for the use of waste to energy technologies.

CO2 recovery and conversion that allow for the continuous use of coal.

Coal is an abundant resource in many places of the world. Unfortunately, the combustion of coal has been clearly associated with the generation of CO2 and global warming, which has caused a tendency to gradually abandon coal as an energy resource, preferring natural gas and renewable energy. This is a worrying situation for a country like Colombia, which possess very large coal deposits. Currently, this country is exporting large amounts of coal and this contributes largely to the generation of income. In this sense, it is important to find applications for coal, both in chemical process and more sustainable energy systems and also develop ways for

The waste problem is very important in developing countries like Colombia [1]. With 49 million people in 2017 and its population mostly concentrated in the Andean highlands and along the Caribbean coast, it has 31 cities of more than 200,000 habitants and 65 with more than 100,000; being one of most urbanized countries in the region, its urban population is estimated at 76%. Informality and poverty are big problems, and these come associated with informal waste recycling practices. With a medium generation of 0.54 kg/hab./day, the estimated daily generation is around 26,000 tons. Colombia is a model in the region in the recycling of paper and cardboard, with a recovery of 57%. This has to do with the existence of industrial
