TABLE OF CONTENTS Because of its varied nature, there are many different approaches to the gasification of waste. Some processes have already been described; in particular (but not only) fluid-bed processes have the possibility to be adapted to waste gasification. Others have been purpose developed for waste gasification. At present there are a large number of processes in various stages of development or demonstration. Schwager and Whiting (2002) report "some 71 novel thermal treatment plants that are already operating for waste applications including many that use gasification as their main conversion method"; they go on to list 26 of these that are considered commercially available. It is noticeable that very few have more than one or two reference plants, and it must be expected that over the course of time the market will show which of these are the most effective concepts.
The two most important aspects specific to the gasification of municipal solid wastes are, first, the highly heterogeneous nature of the feed, and secondly, the extensive and stringent regulations on emissions.
One example of a process that was originally developed for coal feeds but which has been successfully adapted for municipal solid waste (MSW) or refuse-derived fuel (RDF) service is the BGL moving-bed slagging gasifier described in section 5.1. A 650 t/d unit is in service for waste gasification at the Schwarze Pumpe facility in Germany, where it is part of a larger complex producing electric power and methanol. The plant...
