Proceedings of the Second International Energy 2030 Conference,
November 4-5, 2008, Abu Dhabi, UAE

High Temperature Steam Reforming of Solid and Liquid Wastes Generated from Pyrolysis of Automobile Shredded Residue

Pawel Donaj
Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Weihong Yang
Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Wlodzimierz Blasiak
Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Abstract
Presently, there is a growing need of handling wastes generated by disposed vehicles, namely automobile shredder residues (ASR). One solution is microwave pyrolysis by which metals are successfully recycled and by-product such as pyrolysis gas, oil and char are generated. In this work, the treatment of char and liquid product streams from microwave pyrolysis of ASR with high temperature steam (or mixtures of steam with air or oxygen) will be reported. The scope is to produce high quality “syn-gas” that can be used for heat or electricity generation. The current study is based on the residues generated after microwave pyrolysis. The material tested includes two fractions of solid (char) and liquid (Tar and heavy oils) material. The studies on the gasification process with the use of high temperature steam are carried out on a unique high-temperature air/steam reform reactor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). The steam, generated in the ceramic regenerator, is heated up to 1273 K. The gasifier is coupled to a special constructed balance system which is able to record the weight of sample on-line. The thermocouple placed in the sample holder measures the temperature inside the sample. The heating rate, mass loss, gas composition and lower heating value of syn-gas versus residence time are reported for steam temperatures between 1273 Kand 1223 K. The steam mass flow rate is set to 0.65 kg/h and the sample mass for each run is 10 to 20 g.