Recent Innovation in Chemical Engineering Send Orders for Reprints to reprints@benthamscience.ae 60 Recent Innovations in Chemical Engineering, 2018, 11, 60-73 RESEARCH ARTICLE Optimum Operating Condition for Co-Gasification - A Thermo- dynamic Study Ganesh R. Kale * , Suhas D. Doke and Atul N. Vaidya 1 Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Division, CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Re- search Institute, Nehru Marg, Nagpur-440020, India A R T I C L E H I S T O R Y Received: October 25, 2017 Revised: February 13, 2018 Accepted: March 23, 2018 DOI: 10.2174/2405520411666180406151246 Abstract: Background: Gasification is a popular process for producing syngas from solid fuels. The focus has nowadays shifted to co-gasification using a mixed feed of coal and biomass. An optimum gasifier operating condition (OGOC) is an extremely important proc- ess parameter for gasification system. Method: A thermodynamic analysis was done to calculate this condition for co-gasifier op- eration. The relative product gas generation trends in co-gasification were compared with the single feed coal gasification in this study. Conclusion: An OGOC of 618°C with CO 2 feed of 0.6475 moles and H 2 O feed of 1.3525 moles was found to be the best condition for co-gasifier operation producing 1.6429 moles of syngas (of syngas ratio 1.5905) and 54.96% H 2 O conversion with the gasifier product gas containing over 61% syngas. Such OGOC can be found for gasification systems ensuring the advantages of thermoneutral operation as well as 100% carbon conversion. Keywords: Coal-biomass co-gasification, thermoneutral temperature, optimum temperature, carbon con- version, co-gasification, hundred percent carbon conversion. 1. INTRODUCTION Coal/biomass gasification is a well-established technology. Biomass is an excellent renewable en- ergy source. Carbonaceous wastes like municipal solid waste, agricultural biomass waste, etc. can also be used as resources of solid fuel and some research studies have been published. Arena has presented a review on the process and technologi- cal aspects of gasification of municipal solid waste [1]. Syngas production by gasification of carbona- ceous materials including polyethylene is also *Address correspondence to this author at Solid and Hazard- ous Waste Management Division, CSIR-National Environ- ment Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur-20, India; Tel: +917122249885-(393); Fax: +917122249752; E-mail: gr_kale@neeri.res.in studied [2]. Syngas is an important value-added commodity to produce petrochemicals and use in fuel cells. Several coal and biomass gasification studies have been reported in the literature. Co-gasification of coal and biomass is an inter- esting research area [3-5]. Fermoso et al. have studied the co-gasification of coal with biomass and petroleum coke to determine the effect of blending on gas production and carbon conversion [6]. In another study, Yoon et al. have studied co- gasification of coal and petroleum coke and found improvement in activation energy and reaction time as compared to individual fuels [7]. Sjostrom et al. have experimentally studied the co-gasification of coal and woody biomass in an oxygen atmos- phere in a fluidized bed reactor under pressure and concluded that the in-situ formed mixture of fuels 2405-5212/18 $58.00+.00 © 2018 Bentham Science Publishers