ABSTRACT
It has been clear however that waste, especially sorted waste material, contains a significant amount of energy that is possible to utilize. A key hurdle associated with traditional incineration is the high risk of the waste material causing corrosion; this lowers the temperature in the Rankine cycle and thus decreases the electrical efficiency. Higher steam temperatures could be used if gasification is carried out before combustion with an intermediate gas-cleaning stage, which would increase the net production of electricity for a given amount of energy input. Gasification also provides opportunities for producing a syngas that could be used in a gas turbine with an even higher electrical efficiency, or for other purposes, such as manufacturing chemicals. Two further options are to use pyrolysis to make pyrolysis oil (for use as a fuel or, after further processing, as automotive fuel) and as a pretreatment prior to gasification/incineration. Furthermore, the requirements for low levels of toxicity in the remaining material or high costs of posttreatment (i.e., landfill of ashes) in some countries have led to the usage of alternative processes where focus has been placed on high temperatures so that the ashes form a slag. It is in such cases that the gasification of waste has emerged as a competitive alternative.
