Introducing and Performance Assessment of a Novel Hybrid System Composed of MSW Plasma Gasification, and Combined Power Cycle (SOFC, ORC, and Carbon Dioxide Power)

Worldwide economic growth and rising urban population, along with rapidly growing urbanization and industrialization, have led to the unrelenting production of municipal solid wastes (MSW). The concerns of rapid increase of energy demand consumption also concentrate the scientific attention on how to reuse the solid residues for generating bioenergy. The purpose of this article is to develop and introduce a novel MSW-driven plasma gasification system coupled with a carbon dioxide power cycle, organic Rankine cycle, and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), aimed at simultaneous waste management and power generation through an efficient and eco-friendly manner. The output of the MSW gasification process was used as a fuel of the SOFC system, and the sensible output heat of the SOFC is conducted to drive a combined power cycle; organic Rankine cycle and trans-critical carbon dioxide cycles. Aspen HYSYS/PLUS and MATLAB programming were used to model the developed structure. The SOFC and MSW plasma gasification process was validated and proved an appropriate approval. The output power generated by the integrated structure was calculated at 404.6 kW with 61.22%, 55.59%, and 21.53% for SOFC overall efficiency, gasification process energy efficiency, and overall thermal efficiency, correspondingly. The plasma energy ratio, Equivalence ratio, and steam-air mass ratio were defined to characterize the MSW plasma gasification process, and sensitivity analysis was applied to investigate the behavior of the system on different pressures, temperatures, air injection, and MSW mass flow rates. The sensitivity study revealed that the overall thermal and gasification process efficiencies increase up to 28.6% and 61%, respectively, when the MSW flow rate decreases from 400 to 250 kg/h.