Saturday, October 29, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
The need for developing a mechanism to convert waste into energy is essential in today’s environment. As population continues to increase, energy resources are decreasing and landfill waste continues to grow. An alternative method to process waste into energy can be accomplished by using plasma to gasify waste and converting it into synthesis gas. Synthesis gas is a mixture of gases that contains mainly hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be used as fuel. Preliminary tests have been run for different types of biomass, including wood shavings, waste from ground coffee, grape pomace, etc., in order to obtain energy and mass balances. It is essential to determine if the biomass samples will provide substantial energy and to analyze the flowing characteristics of each sample as it runs through the auger system. Flowrate results for different types of biomass are provided and discussed.