Executive Summary : | Meeting the energy demands of the evolving economies without further increasing the CO₂ level of the environment is one of the greatest challenges of today. To overcome these challenge, a wide range of approaches have to be implemented and one of the solutions can be the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass and plastics together for hydrogen rich (30-40 %) fuel gas production that can be further processed for the generation of electricity using Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). With time, the demand and supply for power is increasing continuously. Biomass is 4th largest abundant and sustainable resource for future energy and alternatively, use of plastic in today’s world is increasing continuously and it is a non-biodegradable source. Among the available process, pyrolysis and gasification are most preferred as compare to other processes (Bio-chemical) because it can treat all types of the feedstocks, takes less time, has higher efficiency and gives broad range of products for multiple applications. The major problem with plain biomass gasification is seasonal availability, scattered composition, lower fuel gas yield with lower hydrogen concentration whereas plastic though has high hydrogen content but it is difficult to be gasified as it has feeding problem due to lower density and stickiness in the exit stream. Thus to mitigate this, the additions of plastics with the biomass will synergize the yield and quality of hydrogen and it will make it the most promising for future energy generation. Catalyst has a significant effect to increase hydrogen production, tar decomposition and also in CO₂ reduction in the process by increasing the secondary reaction in the vapour phase. Mostly alkaline and alkali earth metals or transition metals are favoured for the process. Use of CO₂ and steam as the gasifying medium is an important aspect of this project as it serves the dual purpose of minimizing the waste as well as generating the energy. CO₂ has the major advantage to adjust H₂ to CO ratio in nitrogen free fuel gases to meet the specific requirement and also it can yield more volatiles in a reactive char and thereby increasing the pyro-gasification process. The biomass/plastic blending ratio plays pivotal role in enriching the hydrogen as volatiles from the biomass devolatilization are enhanced by radicals received from plastic decomposition that act as H-donors to the volatiles and it will foster the cracking of polymers to produce further lighter hydrocarbons. Because of high tolerance for impurities and the potential for internal reform abilities, the generated gas (Approx composition: H₂ 30-40 %, CH₄ 5-10 %, CO 20-30 %, CO₂ 15-20 %) may be used in SOFC for electricity generation which is one of the targets for Department of Energy (DOE) of utilizing renewable source for energy generation using SOFC. Therefore, this study may provide a way to mitigate triple problem of waste minimization, CO₂ capture and energy generation altogether. |