The footwear industries generate an expressive amount of solid wastes. So that the thermal treatment technologies are an alternative destination to these wastes, once their filled volume are reduced and dangerous components are stabilized. Consequently, it can be related to new challenge on alternative energy resources due to combustion of these wastes is attractive in reason of their high calorific value. This study is focalized in the analysis of a pilot plant to process solid wastes (biomass) of footwear industries and using of its thermal capacity to generate electrical energy. The pilot unit is basically formed of one combined gasifier-combustor and one air pollution control system. The analysis of gasifier operation is fundamental to improve the process performance, so that evaluated here. To this task, the mathematical modeling of gasification system was developed. However it is well-known that practical data (geometric measures, identification of intermediary compounds, etc.) are oftentimes available on high or low detailed levels to satisfactory process simulation. In this sense, two mathematical models are presented: one rigorous model and one simplified model based on the level of details and input data. The rigorous model takes into account the chemical kinetics and the involved transfer phenomena; on the other hand the simplified model is limited to thermochemical equilibrium of the system. The models were implemented in an equation-based simulator of generic processes, EMSO. After validation with data from literature, the models were applied for simulation of actual operating conditions of pilot plant and sensitivity analyses regarding to operating parameters. Both models compare reasonably well with experimental system, inside of limitations of each approach. This makes possible to predict the ideal operating conditions in order to reach the maximum efficiency of the pilot plant.