Translated from Nensho no Kagaku to Gijutsu, 3, 255-264 (1996) - Basic studies on gasification characteristics of organic model wastes

Plastic waste is increasing every year. Gasification is one of many chemica l recycling technologies. The authors carried out basic gasification tests on polyethylene. To produce a tar and soot free synthetic gas composed main ly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide which is a feed source for methanol fuel production, polyethylene pellets are gasified in the presence of oxygen an d steam. The first step of the gasification process produces a soot-free ga s with "tar", the second step of the gasification process decomposes the "t ar" produced in the first step. As a result, this closed, coupled two step gasification process has proven to be a tar and soot free gasification tech nology for plastic wastes.