High-temperature entrained flow gasification of biomass

Biomass (wood and straw) gasification has been studied in a laboratory scale atmospheric pressure entrained flow reactor. Effects of reaction temperature, steam/carbon molar ratio, excess air ratio, and biomass type on the solid, liquid and gas products were investigated. The biomass was completely converted at all investigated operating conditions and the syngas contained nearly no tar but some soot at the highest applied reaction temperature of 1350 degrees C. With a rise of reaction temperature from 1000 degrees C to 1350 degrees C, the yield of producer gas (defined as the sum of H-2, CO, CO2 and hydrocarbons up to C-3 species) increased dramatically by 72%. The H-2/CO molar ratio in syngas was close to 1 at reaction temperature above 1200 degrees C with steam addition. Higher temperature was beneficial to lower the amount of tar while the soot yield showed a peak of 56.7 g/kg fuel at 1200 degrees C. With steam addition, the producer gas yield and in particular the H-2 yield increased gradually, while the CO yield decreased slowly. The molar ratio of H-2/CO was equal to 1 with the largest supplied amount of steam addition (H2O/C = 1). Steam addition gave an obvious reduction in the soot yield, but it was not possible to completely avoid soot. Increasing excess air ratio from 0.25 to 0.50 gave no significant change in the producer gas yield, but the yields of H-2, CO, and soot decreased, the CO2 yield increased, and the molar ratio of H-2/CO decreased. Moreover, wood and straw gasification provided similar product compositions. At 1350 degrees C and with steam addition, the syngas composition is close to equilibrium as verified by calculation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.