Co-gasification of meat and bone meal with coal in a fluidised bed reactor

After the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy illness appeared, the meat and bone meat (MBM) produced from animal residues became an important waste. In spite of being a possible fuel due to its heating value (around 21.4 MJ/kg), an important fraction of the meat and bone meal is being sent to landfills. The aim of this work is to evaluate the co-gasification of low percentages of meat and bone meal with coal in a fluidised bed reactor as a potential waste management alternative. The effect of the bed temperature (800–900 °C), the equivalence ratio (0.25–0.35) and the percentage of MBM in the solid fed (0–1 wt.%) on the co-gasification product yields and properties is evaluated. The results show the addition of 1 wt.% of MBM in a coal gasification process increases the gas and the liquid yield and decreases the solid yield at 900 °C and 0.35 of temperature and equivalence ratio operational conditions. At operational conditions of 900 °C and equivalence ratio of 0.35, the specific yield to gas (ygas) increases from 3.18 m3(STP)/kg to 4.47 m3(STP)/kg. The gas energy yield decreased 24.1% and the lower heating value of the gas decreases from 3.36 MJ/m3(STP) to 2.16 MJ/m3(STP). The concentration of the main gas components (H2, CO and CO2) hardly varies with the addition of MBM, however the light hydrocarbon concentrations decrease and the H2S concentration increases at the higher temperature (900 °C).