Journal of Engineering Physics and Thermophysics, Vol. 93, No. 4, July, 2020 RECYCLING OF ORGANIC WASTE IN A PLASMA REACTOR V. E. Messerle, a,b,c A. L. Mossé, d A. B. Ustimenko, c,e UDC 502.174.1;658.567;621.039.6 N. A. Slavinskaya, f and Zh. Zh. Sitdikov c Thermodynamic calculations and experiments on plasma gasification of wood waste have been conducted. On the basis of a verified TERRA universal thermodynamic-calculation program, the authors have conducted an experiment on plasma recycling of agricultural waste. No detrimental impurities were found in the products of plasma recycling. Keywords: organic waste, agricultural waste, plasma treatment, plasma reactor. Introduction. Active industrial development increases demands for energy resources, which are 12–15 billion tons of reference fuel worldwide at present [1, 2]. Energy needs are supplied due to the use of the following energy sources: coal, oil, gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy sources. Despite the continuous growth in the consumption of fuels, there is a systematic search for alternative energy sources (solar energy, the energy of wind, tides, and low tides, and waste energy). Residential, industrial, and agricultural waste is the basic alternative energy carrier. In the present paper, we give results of thermodynamic analysis of the process of plasma treatment of organic waste, and also of experimental investigations into the plasma-air gasification of wood waste, a comparison of calculated and obtained experimental data, a verification of the TERRA universal thermodynamic-calculation program, as well as the developed technological recommendations on recycling organic waste. Technologies of Treatment of Organic Waste. Searching for alternative energy carriers is a topical world problem [3]. On the one hand, this is due to the high costs associated with the production of traditional energy carriers and the depletion of their fields, and on the other, to the sharp environmental deterioration worldwide. In a number of cases, in connection with the steadily rising oil, gas, and coal prices, obtaining an alternative fuel from carbon-containing waste (solid residential waste, biomedical waste, crop, and products of animal vital activity) becomes increasingly necessary and profitable. The relevance of this area is confirmed by the publication of the handbook of thermal treatment of waste [4]. The opportunities for producing a fuel from biomass, including its pyrolysis and gasification, have been studied actively for longer than 50 years [5–9]. Even now certain industries use biomass as an energy source. In the agribusiness industry, a great amount of waste is left after the treatment and preparation of products for marketing. A major portion of this waste is yielded by poultry farms and livestock enterprises, mainly in the form of poultry manure and dung. In small amounts this waste can be used as fertilizers. But its vast amount and inefficient use have an adverse environmental effect [10–12]. To prevent this negative influence, the agricultural waste should be utilized as renewable energy sources. Biogas, as a renewable energy source, attracts considerable interest worldwide. Its production technologies are based on complex natural processes of biological degradation of organic substances under anaerobic conditions under the action of bacteria. Biogas is an alternative energy-producing fuel. It consists of methane (up to 50–87%) and carbon dioxide (13–50%). Combustion products of biogas may be used as the working medium in a gas-steam plant for generation of electric and thermal power. However, the process of obtaining biogas is very lengthy (up to 12 days), and the units to produce biogas from animal waste are characterized by the low capacity (100 m 3 per ton of waste) [5–7, 13]. Despite the compound technological cycle of obtaining biogas from animal waste, small biogas units are actively created worldwide. Thus, the greatest number a Institute for Combustion Problems, 172 Bogenbai Batyr Str., Almaty, 050012, Kazakhstan; b S. S. Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1 Akad. Lavrentiev Ave., Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia; Institute of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 Al-Farabi Ave., Almaty, 050040, Kazakhstan; d A. V. Luikov Heat and Mass Transfer Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 15 P. Brovka Str., Minsk, 220072, Republic of Belarus; email; mosse@itmo.by; e TOO "Plazmotekhnika R&D," 26 Nauryzbai Batyr, Office 41, 050016, Kazakhstan; email: ust@physics.kz; f Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) GmbH, 14 Boltzmann Str., Garching, 85748, Germany. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 93, No. 4, pp. 1023–1034, July–August, 2020. Original article submitted April 10, 2019. 0062-0125/20/9304-0987 ©2020 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 987 DOI 10.1007/s10891-020-02199-0