Abstract
The choice of gasification medium plays a critical role in determining syngas composition and hydrogen yield during refuse-derived fuel (RDF) gasification. Although numerous studies have examined the behaviour of individual gasifying agents, few have provided a systematic, multi-criteria comparison to identify the optimum medium for hydrogen-rich syngas production. This study evaluates four gasification media—steam, carbon dioxide (CO2), oxygen (O2) and air—using the best-worst method (BWM). Twelve technical, economic and environmental criteria were selected from scientific literature and assessed by experts to determine their relative importance. The resulting global weights were used to rank the gasification media. Steam gasification achieved the highest overall score (6.7109), followed by O2 (5.2133), CO2 (4.4608) and air (4.1295). Calorific value, hydrogen to carbon monoxide (H2/CO) ratio and cost were identified as the most influential criteria. The proposed framework provides a transparent decision-support tool for selecting gasification media and can be applied to RDF and other waste-biomass feedstocks in waste-to-energy applications.
