With efficient and reliable torches for the thermal plasma generation becoming available in recent years, the thermal plasma as an energy source for pyrolysis/gasification has attracted much attention, and a special attention is paid to the waste treatment for the resource and the energy recovery. Plasma pyrolysis/gasification systems have unique features such as the extremely high reaction temperature and the ultra-fast reaction velocity as compared to the traditional pyrolysis/gasification systems. The plasma pyrolysis/gasification emerges, therefore, as a novel pyrolysis/gasification technology with a great potential in the solid waste disposal. This paper reviews the fundamental studies of plasma pyrolysis/gasification systems including the direct current (DC) arc plasma system and the radio frequency (RF) plasma system with an emphasis on the reactor design such as the plasma fixed/moving bed reactor system, the plasma entrained-flow bed reactor system and the plasma spout-fluid bed reactor system.

thermal plasma  /  pyrolysis/gasification systems  /  waste treatment