Partition of Cu and Pb in a Two-Stage Fluidized-Bed Waste Gasification System

In this study, a two-stage fluidized-bed gasification system was used to determine the distribution of heavy metal contaminants in simulative waste and evaluate the effect of the bed operating temperature, Equivalence ratio (ER), and Steam/Biomass ratio (S/B) in stage 1. The heavy metal concentrations in bed materials and fly ash were measured in two stages. The results show that as the operating temperature of stage 1 increased, the quantity of heavy metals entrapped by stage 1 bed material decreased, while that captured by stage 2 bed material increased. The less volatile Cu was mostly entrapped in stage 1 bed material. The ER and S/B results show that increasing the ER and S/B caused a slight increase in the concentrations of heavy metals entrapped in stage 1 and stage 2 bed materials. However, the influences of ER and S/B were less than that of temperature. The major factors affecting the heavy metal distribution were the operating temperature and the heavy metal volatility. Stage 2 bed material was able to entrap gaseous heavy metals or particles containing heavy metals by particle filtration and chemical adsorption. Thus, the heavy metals (Cu and Pb) had a downward trend after passing through stage 2.