STUDY ON CHAR FRAGMENTATION DURING BIOMASS GASIFICATION IN BUBBLING FLUIDIZED BED

In this work a bench scale bubbling fluidized bed gasifier was built to work with an aerosol sampling and measuring system in order to study char fragmentation phenomenon during biomass gasification process. Both barbeque char and wood pellets were gasified in CO2 (20 vol.%) -N-2 mixture and steam (30 vol.%)-N-2 mixture, respectively. An aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) was used to measure fragmented char particles during the whole gasification process. For the wood pellet gasification case, major fragmentation was observed during the devolatilization stage, which should be attributed to the combined effect of primary fragmentation and attrition. The aerodynamic diameter of those elutriable particles which can be measured by the current system was in the range of 0.5-8 mu m. During the char gasification stage, a distinct mode of char fragments was produced in the size range of 1-7 mu m in either case. The total mass concentration of elutriable particles gradually increased when gasification of char started, and then decreased while the reaction approached completion.