Industrial cashew press cake waste-assisted co-gasification of low-rank coal towards hydrogen-enriched syngas production

Abstract

Cashew press cake (CPC) waste, generated from an industrial unit, was utilized in conjunction with a high-ash coal to evaluate its energy potential values via a co-gasification route in a fluidized-bed system under air-steam conditions. A detailed experimental investigation was accomplished at varying equivalence ratios from 0.15 to 0.30 by manipulating the air-flow rate to the gasifier system at a constant reactor operating temperature of about 800 degrees C and pressure of about 1-2 bar. For the coal and CPC blended sample, an experimentally determined optimum equivalence ratio of 0.25 showed significant improvement in the gasifier performance parameters, with cold gas efficiency and carbon conversion efficiency values reaching almost 91% and 79%, respectively, in comparison to the coal-only sample. Hydrogen concentration also augmented from around 17 vol% to 39 vol % in the air-steam conditions when almost 20 wt% of coal was replaced with CPC feed having potential catalytic properties towards gasification.