Investigate the variability of gas compositions and thermal efficiency of bagasse black liquor gasification

Black liquor is a major by-product of pulp mills; it is one of the most important renewable energy resources, which can be used as a material to produce electrical power, hydrogen, methanol and dimethyl ether by the black liquor gasification technology. In this paper, experiments were carried out with an oxygen injected-gasifier with different oxygen mass ratios, and then the gas compositions were determined and thermal efficiencies were estimated. The results support the following findings: (a) The oxygen mass ratio affected the formations of the CO and H-2, which formations decrease with increasing oxygen mass ratio. (b) The best thermal efficiency of (bagasse black liquor gasification) BBLG system is 0.816, which is close to that of the (dry black liquor gasification) DBLG systems and the (catalytic hydrothermal gasification) CHG systems, and is 25.6% higher than that of the common (recovery boilers) RB. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.