Energy from gasification of solid wastes

Gasification technology is by no means new: in the 1850s, most of the city of London was illuminated by "town gas" produced from the gasification of coal. Nowadays, gasification is the main technology for biomass conversion to energy and an attractive alternative for the thermal treatment of solid waste. The number of different uses of gas shows the flexibility of gasification and therefore allows it to be integrated with several industrial processes, as well as power generation systems. The use of a waste-biomass energy production system-in a rural community is very interesting too: This paper describes the current state of gasification technology, energy recovery systems; pre-treatments and prospective in syngas use with particular attention to the different process cycles and environmental impacts of solid wastes gasification. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.