Thermodynamic Analysis of Tar Reforming Through Auto-Thermal Reforming Process

Fixed bed gasification is a simple and suitable technology for small scale power generation. One of the disadvantages of this technology is producing tar. So far, tar is not utilized yet and being waste that should be treated into a more useful product. This paper presents a thermodynamic analysis of tar conversion into gas producer through non-catalytic auto-thermal reforming technology. Tar was converted into components, C, H, O, N and S, and then reacted with oxidant such as mixture of air or pure oxygen. Thus, this reaction occurred auto-thermally and reached chemical equilibrium. The sensitivity analysis resulted that the most promising process performance occurred at flow rate of air was reached 43% of stoichiometry while temperature of process is 1100 degrees C, the addition of pure oxygen is 40% and preheating of oxidant flow is 250 degrees C. The yield of the most promising process performance between 11.15-11.17 kmol/h and cold gas efficiency was between 73.8-73.9%. The results of this study indicated that thermodynamically the conversion of tar into producer gas through non-catalytic auto-thermal reformingis more promising.