Comparative Investigation of Hydrogen Production from Polyethylene, Polypropylene, and Garden Residues and Their Blends by Gasification

OpenAlex · İngilizce

The current study investigates hydrogen-rich syngas production from polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), garden waste (GW), and their co-gasification blends using Aspen Plus simulations. A thermodynamic equilibrium model based on Gibbs free-energy minimization was developed and validated using experimental data reported in the literature. The developed model can assess how gasification temperature and equivalence ratio (ER) affect syngas composition and H2 mole fraction. Validation results demonstrated acceptable agreement with experimental data, yielding root mean square error (RMSE) values of 2.25, 4.38, and 4.75 for PE, PP, and GW gasification, respectively. The results showed that increasing temperature enhanced the H2 and CO mole fractions while reducing the CO2 and CH4 mole fractions. Among the individual feedstocks, GW exhibited the highest H2 mole fraction, reaching 0.250 at 750 °C. Among the co-gasification blends, the maximum H2 mole fractions were 0.208 for the polypropylene–garden waste (PP + GW) blend, 0.2205 for the polyethylene–garden waste (PE + GW) blend, and 0.222 for the polypropylene–polyethylene–garden waste (PP + PE + GW) blend. The ternary PP + PE + GW blend therefore exhibited the highest H2 mole fraction among the blended systems under the temperature analysis. The ER analysis showed maximum H2 mole fractions of 0.218 for PP + GW at an ER of 0.27, 0.212 for PE + GW at an ER of 0.28, and 0.211 for PP + PE + GW at an ER of 0.28. The findings demonstrate that plastic–biomass co-gasification provides favorable syngas characteristics and enables the utilization of mixed waste resources for hydrogen-rich syngas production. Overall, the developed Aspen Plus model provides a reliable tool for evaluating plastic–biomass co-gasification systems and supports the utilization of mixed waste resources for H2 mole fractions and waste-to-energy applications.