Integrated Plasma Gasification Technologies for Enhanced Energy Conversion and Environmental Sustainability: A Short Review

Year : 2025 | Volume : 13 | Special Issue 02 | Page : 67 75
    By

    Vedraj Nagar,

  • Rajneesh Kaushal,

  1. Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India
  2. Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India

Abstract

Plasma Gasification emerged as a constructive tool for waste management and cleaner energy production. The versatility of the process makes it a promising solution of the global energy crises. In this paper, a brief coverup is done of integrated plasma models. Plasma technology is an emerging solution for recycling a wide range of waste making it a highly sustainable, efficient, and environment-friendly process. The integration of Plasma Gasification with complementary technologies further enhances its capabilities, allowing for improved energy conversion efficiency, reduced environmental impact, and expanded application areas. This review paper provides an overview of the effects of integrating PG with a wide range of technologies, including chemical looping, water electrolysis, methanol synthesis, supercritical CO2 cycles, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), sludge pyrolysis, multi-stage flash desalination, direct carbon fuel cells (DCFCs), steam turbine cycles, automobile reforming, CO2 gasification, water shift processes, calcium looping, coal-fired power generation, water-gas shift reactions, acid gas removal, and pressure swing adsorption. The synergistic interactions between PG and these technologies are discussed, along with their implications for energy efficiency, resource utilisation, and environmental sustainability. This review aims to provide insights into the potential of integrated PG systems to address global energy and environmental challenges while advancing the transition towards a more sustainable energy future.

Keywords: Plasma gasification, waste to energy, renewable energy, hybrid plasma models, circular economy.

[This article belongs to Special Issue under section in Journal of Polymer and Composites (jopc)]

aWQ6MTk4NjQ0fGZpbGVuYW1lOjgyYjk0NWQwLWZpLXBuZy53ZWJwfHNpemU6dGh1bWJuYWls
How to cite this article:
Vedraj Nagar, Rajneesh Kaushal. Integrated Plasma Gasification Technologies for Enhanced Energy Conversion and Environmental Sustainability: A Short Review. Journal of Polymer and Composites. 2025; 13(02):67-75.
How to cite this URL:
Vedraj Nagar, Rajneesh Kaushal. Integrated Plasma Gasification Technologies for Enhanced Energy Conversion and Environmental Sustainability: A Short Review. Journal of Polymer and Composites. 2025; 13(02):67-75. Available from: https://journals.stmjournals.com/jopc/article=2025/view=198655


Browse Figures

References

  1. J. Cho, H. W. Park, D. W. Park, and S. Choi, “Enhancement of synthesis gas production using gasification-plasma hybrid system,” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 1709–1716, 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.12.007.
  2. Mazzoni, M. Almazrouei, C. Ghenai, and I. Janajreh, “A comparison of energy recovery from MSW through plasma gasification and entrained flow gasification,” in Energy Procedia, Elsevier Ltd, 2017, pp. 3480–3485. doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2017.12.233.
  3. Sajid, A. Raheem, N. Ullah, M. Asim, M. S. Ur Rehman, and N. Ali, “Gasification of municipal solid waste: Progress, challenges, and prospects,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 168. Elsevier Ltd, Oct. 01, 2022. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2022.112815.
  4. Hu, K. Pang, L. Cai, and Z. Liu, “A multi-stage co-gasification system of biomass and municipal solid waste (MSW) for high quality syngas production,” Energy, vol. 221, Apr. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.119639.
  5. Tavares, A. Ramos, and A. Rouboa, “A theoretical study on municipal solid waste plasma gasification,” Waste Manag., vol. 90, pp. 37–45, May 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2019.03.051.
  6. Hlina, M. Hrabovsky, T. Kavka, and M. Konrad, “Production of high quality syngas from argon/water plasma gasification of biomass and waste,” Waste Manag., vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 63–66, Jan. 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2013.09.018.
  7. Mallick and P. Vairakannu, “Experimental investigation of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastics plasma gasification,” J. Environ. Manage., vol. 345, p. 118655, Nov. 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118655.
  8. A. Erdogan and M. Z. Yilmazoglu, “Plasma gasification of the medical waste,” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, vol. 46, no. 57, pp. 29108–29125, Aug. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.12.069.
  9. Wang et al., “A novel methanol-electricity cogeneration system based on the integration of water electrolysis and plasma waste gasification,” Energy, vol. 267, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.126490.
  10. Zhao et al., “Thermo-economic analysis of a novel hydrogen production system using medical waste and biogas with zero carbon emission,” Energy, vol. 265, no. December 2022, p. 126333, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.126333.
  11. E. Messerle and A. B. Ustimenko, “Plasma processing of uranium-containing solid fuels,” Fuel, vol. 242, pp. 447–454, Apr. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2019.01.050.
  12. Danthurebandara, S. Van Passel, I. Vanderreydt, and K. Van Acker, “Environmental and economic performance of plasma gasification in Enhanced Landfill Mining,” Waste Manag., vol. 45, pp. 458–467, Apr. 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2015.06.022.
  13. Wang et al., “Highly efficient treatment of textile dyeing sludge by CO2 thermal plasma gasification,” Waste Manag., vol. 90, pp. 29–36, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2019.04.025.
  14. Huang and L. Tang, “Pyrolysis treatment of waste tire powder in a capacitively coupled RF plasma reactor,” Energy Convers. Manag., vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 611–617, 2009, doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2008.10.023.
  15. Striūgas, V. Valinčius, N. Pedišius, R. Poškas, and K. Zakarauskas, “Investigation of sewage sludge treatment using air plasma assisted gasification,” Waste Manag., vol. 64, pp. 149–160, Jun. 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2017.03.024.
  16. Feng et al., “Performance Assessment of a Novel Polygeneration System Based on the Integration of Waste Plasma Gasification, Tire Pyrolysis, Gas Turbine, Supercritical CO2 Cycle and Organic Rankine Cycle,” J. Therm. Sci., vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 2196–2214, 2023, doi: 10.1007/s11630-023-1861-4.
  17. Evangelisti, C. Tagliaferri, R. Clift, P. Lettieri, R. Taylor, and C. Chapman, “Integrated gasification and plasma cleaning for waste treatment: A life cycle perspective,” Waste Manag., vol. 43, pp. 485–496, Sep. 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2015.05.037.
  18. Nicolae, “PLASMA GASIFICATION – THE WASTE-to-ENERGY SOLUTION FOR THE FUTURE,” Probl. Reg. Energ., vol. 2014–3, no. 3(26), pp. 107–115, 2014.
  19. Zhang, L. Dor, L. Zhang, W. Yang, and W. Blasiak, “Performance analysis of municipal solid waste gasification with steam in a Plasma Gasification Melting reactor,” Appl. Energy, vol. 98, pp. 219–229, 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.03.028.
  20. C. Kuo, J. R. Chen, W. Wu, and J. S. Chang, “Integration of calcium looping technology in combined cycle power plants using co-gasification of torrefied biomass and coal blends,” Energy Convers. Manag., vol. 174, no. June, pp. 489–503, 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2018.08.044.
  21. Perna, M. Minutillo, A. Lubrano Lavadera, and E. Jannelli, “Combining plasma gasification and solid oxide cell technologies in advanced power plants for waste to energy and electric energy storage applications,” Waste Manag., vol. 73, pp. 424–438, 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2017.09.022.
  22. Bhui and P. Vairakannu, “Chemical Looping and Plasma Technologies for Gasification of Coal and Biomass,” 2018, pp. 499–520. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-7335-9_20.
  23. Mallick and V. Prabu, “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,” Energy Convers. Manag., vol. 271, Nov. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2022.116320.
  24. Cao et al., “Hydrogen Production System Using Alkaline Water Electrolysis Adapting to Fast Fluctuating Photovoltaic Power,” Energies, vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 1–13, 2023, doi: 10.3390/en16083308.
  25. Zhang et al., “A novel system integrating water electrolysis and supercritical CO2 cycle for biomass to methanol,” Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 225, no. February, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2023.120234.
  26. Aziz, “Integrated supercritical water gasification and a combined cycle for microalgal utilization,” Energy Convers. Manag., vol. 91, pp. 140–148, 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2014.12.012.
  27. Singh, D. Zappa, and E. Comini, “Solid oxide fuel cell: Decade of progress, future perspectives and challenges,” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, vol. 46, no. 54, pp. 27643–27674, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.020.
  28. Yin et al., “Thermodynamic analysis of a plasma co-gasification process for hydrogen production using sludge and food waste as mixed raw materials,” Renew. Energy, vol. 222, no. June 2023, p. 119893, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2023.119893.
  29. Mountouris, E. Voutsas, and D. Tassios, “Plasma gasification of sewage sludge: Process development and energy optimization,” Energy Convers. Manag., vol. 49, no. 8, pp. 2264–2271, 2008, doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2008.01.025.
  30. A. Tareemi and S. W. Sharshir, “A state-of-art overview of multi-stage flash desalination and water treatment: Principles, challenges, and heat recovery in hybrid systems,” Sol. Energy, vol. 266, no. October, p. 112157, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.solener.2023.112157.
  31. Lv et al., “Thermodynamic and economic analysis of a conceptual system combining medical waste plasma gasification, SOFC, sludge gasification, supercritical CO2 cycle, and desalination,” Energy, vol. 282, no. August, p. 128866, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.128866.
  32. Cao, Y. Sun, and G. Wang, “Direct carbon fuel cell: Fundamentals and recent developments,” J. Power Sources, vol. 167, no. 2, pp. 250–257, 2007, doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.02.034.
  33. Mehrpooya and S. S. Hosseini, “A novel integration of plasma gasification melting process with direct carbon fuel cell,” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, no. xxxx, pp. 1–14, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.08.183.
  34. Chen, X. Tu, G. Homm, and A. Weidenkaff, “Plasma pyrolysis for a sustainable hydrogen economy,” Nat. Rev. Mater., vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 333–334, 2022, doi: 10.1038/s41578-022-00439-8.
  35. Mallick and P. Vairakannu, “CO2 plasma gasification of bakelite-based electrical switch waste feedstock,” J. Clean. Prod., vol. 423, p. 138813, Oct. 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138813.
  36. Florin, M. Boot-Handford, and P. Fennell, “Calcium looping technologies for gasification and reforming,” in Calcium and Chemical Looping Technology for Power Generation and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Capture, Elsevier, 2015, pp. 139–152. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-85709-243-4.00007-0.
  37. Pan, W. Peng, J. Li, H. Chen, G. Xu, and T. Liu, “Design and evaluation of a conceptual waste-to-energy approach integrating plasma waste gasification with coal-fired power generation,” Energy, vol. 238, Jan. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.121947.
  38. Liu et al., “Thermo-Economic Analysis of a Plasma-Gasification-Based Waste-to-Energy System Integrated with a Supercritical CO2 Cycle and a Combined Heat and Power Plant,” Energy Technol., vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 1–19, 2022, doi: 10.1002/ente.202200101.
  39. H. Chen and C. Y. Chen, “Water gas shift reaction for hydrogen production and carbon dioxide capture: A review,” Appl. Energy, vol. 258, no. October 2019, p. 114078, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114078.
  40. Bhattacharyya, R. Turton, and S. E. Zitney, “Acid gas removal from syngas in IGCC plants,” in Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Technologies, Elsevier, 2017, pp. 385–418. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-100167-7.00011-1.
  41. Qi et al., “Thermodynamic and techno-economic analyses of hydrogen production from different algae biomass by plasma gasification,” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.06.038.
  42. Jiang et al., “Novel two-stage fluidized bed-plasma gasification integrated with SOFC and chemical looping combustion for the high efficiency power generation from MSW: A thermodynamic investigation,” Energy Convers. Manag., vol. 236, no. March, p. 114066, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2021.114066.
  43. Chu, Y. Li, C. Zhang, and Y. Fang, “Process analysis of H2 production from pyrolysis-CO2 gasification-water gas shift for oil sludge based on calcium looping,” Fuel, vol. 342, no. February, p. 127916, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.127916.
  44. C. Kuo, B. Illathukandy, W. Wu, and J. S. Chang, “Energy, exergy, and environmental analyses of renewable hydrogen production through plasma gasification of microalgal biomass,” Energy, vol. 223, May 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.120025.
Special Issue Subscription Review Article
Volume 13
Special Issue 02
Received 21/03/2024
Accepted 25/07/2024
Published 17/02/2025
Publication Time 333 Days
463

Login


My IP

PlumX Metrics