Reaction Characteristics of Wastepaper Gasification With CO₂ Catalyzed by Molten Carbonate Salts

In this paper, wastepaper gasification with steam and carbon dioxide was tested in the presence of molten carbonate salt catalysts. Reactions with steam or carbon dioxide were first compared. Hydrogen was mainly produced by gasification with steam, but no carbon monoxide was generated. For the case where carbon dioxide was used as a reactant instead of steam, generation of carbon monoxide greatly increased via the Boudouard reaction. Different ratios of mixtures of lithium, sodium and potassium carbonates were examined. Lithium was found to play a critical role in the various catalyst combinations. The reaction rate with respect to carbon conversion was approximately first order for low carbon conversions. The rate constants were investigated at different temperatures (923–1023K) and the activation energies were determined. In addition, the flexibility of this technique was examined with three different types of wastepaper. These results suggest the applicability of this process for the effective use of wastepaper and recovery of carbon dioxide.