Utilization of fruit waste for H2-rich syngas production via steam co-gasification with brown coal

In this work, to efficiently utilize waste fruit and low-rank coal for the hydrogen (H₂)-rich syngas production, steam co-gasification of banana peel (BP) and brown coal (BC) was studied in a fixed-bed reactor. The results showed that the gasification rate of BC was highly enhanced after mixing it with BP and the obvious synergistic effect was observed in all investigated three mixing weight ratios (i.e., 1:1, 1:4, 4:1), resulting in a higher carbon conversion as well as a H₂-rich gas production yield for the co-gasification. However, the extent of promotion by synergistic effect was affected by the reaction temperature, mixing ratio, and steam amount. It was found that the high potassium (K) species content in the BP provided the catalytic effect not only on water–gas shift reaction but also on tar reforming/cracking, thereby enhancing the gasification of BC. In addition, it is confirmed that steam should be an important factor to promote the synergistic effect and H₂-rich gas production.