PRELIMINARY STUDY OF CO-GASIFICATION OF DIFFERENT LIGNOCELLULOSIC BIOMASS IN BENCH SCALE REACTOR

Utilisation of biomass energy for power generation is a cheapest and environmental friendly way via gasification technology. However, challenge with biomass gasification is shortage of feedstock for continuous gasification process which consequently interruption in power generation. Mixing ofdifferent biomass materials improved the physical or morphological behaviour of inferior biomass that reduces the operational instability ofprocess. Co-gasification of different biomass materials would enable flexible utilisation of solid feedstock in order to obtained uniform gas composition for power generation applications. The current research focuses on the co-gasification of different lignocellulosic biomass materials with different blending ratios for the quality of syngas and performance of the process. Furthermore, the temperature profile and syngas flare obtained from different blending ratios of feedstock were studied. Characterization of biomass materials (wood, OPF and coconut shell) mainly consists ofultimate analysis, proximate analysis, heating value and elemental analysis were investigated prior to experiments. The co-gasification study was carried out in a batch feed downdraft gasifier. The syngas composition (CO, H2, CH4 and C02) from each experiment was analyzed using Emerson X-Stream online gas analyzer

PRELIMINARY STUDY OF CO-GASIFICATION OF DIFFERENT LIGNOCELLULOSIC BIOMASS IN BENCH SCALE REACTOR

Utilisation of biomass energy for power generation is a cheapest and environmental friendly way via gasification technology. However, challenge with biomass gasification is shortage of feedstock for continuous gasification process which consequently interruption in power generation. Mixing ofdifferent biomass materials improved the physical or morphological behaviour of inferior biomass that reduces the operational instability ofprocess. Co-gasification of different biomass materials would enable flexible utilisation of solid feedstock in order to obtained uniform gas composition for power generation applications. The current research focuses on the co-gasification of different lignocellulosic biomass materials with different blending ratios for the quality of syngas and performance of the process. Furthermore, the temperature profile and syngas flare obtained from different blending ratios of feedstock were studied. Characterization of biomass materials (wood, OPF and coconut shell) mainly consists ofultimate analysis, proximate analysis, heating value and elemental analysis were investigated prior to experiments. The co-gasification study was carried out in a batch feed downdraft gasifier. The syngas composition (CO, H2, CH4 and C02) from each experiment was analyzed using Emerson X-Stream online gas analyzer

Effect of Blending Ratio on Quality of Producer Gas From Co-Gasification of Wood and Coconut Residual

Biomass gasification often encounters the shortage of biomass supply for continuous operation. Co-gasification of different biomass materials is a promising solution that can address the shortage of biomass supply for the continuous gasification process. However, the effectiveness of co-gasification is not well understood. Furthermore, there is nearly no reported work of co-gasification of two or more biomass materials. In this study, two Malaysian local biomass materials, wood residual and coconut shells were co-gasified in a 33.6 kW thermal capacity downdraft gasifier to investigate the effect of blending ratio the on quality of the producer gas. The results show that producer gas composition increased as coconut shells proportion increased in blends of up to 60%. A blend of 40:60 W/CS results in a synergetic effect as compared to discrete gasification of both feedstock. The maximum H2 and CO were obtained as; 11.46 vol.% and 23.99 vol.% respectively at 40:60 W/CS blending ratio. The results achieved from 40:60 W/CS blend were 16.70% and 10.96% higher as compared to pure wood gasification for H2 and CO respectively. It is concluded that coconut shells can be utilized a substitute of wood residual in form of blends or as discrete feedstock for the continuous gasification process without the change in gasifier geometry

Steam gasification of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with CaO in a bubbling fluidized bed gasifier for enriching H2 in syngas with Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

Funding Information: This work made use of the Aalto University Bioeconomy Facilities. We acknowledge the provision of facilities and technical support by Aalto University at OtaNano-Nanomicroscopy Center (Aalto-NMC). Nordkalk Oy Ab is acknowledged as providing CaO. Vadim Desyatnyk and Mika Ahlgren are acknowledged for the reactor system fabrication. Samuel Wijaya, Mikael Hytti, Juha Linnekoski, Ville Liljeström, and Inge Schlapp-Hackl are acknowledged for providing technical support for the experimental operation, elemental analysis, gas chromatography method development, XRD, and TGA-MS, respectively. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsPolyethylene terephthalate (PET) is widely used as packaging and textile materials. Although PET bottles recycling is mature in many countries, steam gasification could be a solution to recover valuable products from end-of-life PET. CaO has been investigated as an absorbent to capture CO2 and improve H2 production in gasification but mostly it was analyzed as an individual effect. As the main novelty, this work studied not only the individual effect of temperature, steam/PET ratio and CaO/PET ratio on gas products, tars, and char but also the combined interaction of them on gas yields using response surface methodology in PET steam gasification with CaO. The experimental work was conducted in a bubbling fluidized bed gasifier and mathematical models were fitted with considering all significant terms. The results showed that H2 yield was doubled at 800 °C but increasing by 44% at 750 °C when the CaO/PET ratio raised from 0 to 2.0. Thus, temperature, CaO, and their interaction had significant effect on H2 yield, which was also reflected by the P-values calculated from the coefficients of the mathematical models. Tar analysis showed that benzene accounted for 80 wt% in tar products and adding CaO can reduce benzene by 34%. However, CO2 increased with adding CaO at temperatures of 700 °C – 800 °C implying that CaO mainly functioned as a catalyst instead of an absorbent. The models fitted well in R2 and model validations with non-model-fitting points. Therefore, the models can be applied for the prediction of gas product yield in the studied range.Peer reviewe

Investigation on the effect of blending ratio and airflow rate on syngas profile produced from co-gasification of blended feedstock

Shortages of feedstock supply due to seasonal availability, high transportation costs, and lack of biomass market are creating serious problems in continues operation of bioenergy industry. Aiming at this problem, utilization of blended feedstock is proposed. In this work blends of two different biomasses (wood and coconut shells) were co-gasified using externally heated downdraft gasifier. The effects of varying biomass blending ratio and airflow rate on gaseous components of syngas and its heating value were investigated. The results obtained from the experiments revealed that W20:CS80 blend yielded higher values for H2 (20 Vol.%) and HHV (18 MJ/Nm3) as compared to the other blends. The higher airflow rate has a negative effect on syngas profile and heating value. The CO and CH4 were observed higher at the start of the process, however, CO was observed decreasing afterward, and the CH4 dropped to 5.0 Vol.%. The maximum H2 and CH4 were obtained at 2.5 LPM airflow rate. The process was noticed more stable at low air flow rates. The HHV was observed higher at the start of process at low airflow rate. It is concluded that low airflow rate and a higher ratio of coconut shells can improve the syngas quality during co-gasification

Thermochemical Characterization of Oil Palm Fronds, Coconut Shells, and Wood as A Fuel For Heat and Power Generation

This study investigated the thermochemical characterization of oil palm fronds (OPF), coconut shells (CS) and wood for their use as a solid fuel for thermal conversion processes. The ultimate analysis, proximate analysis, calorific values, and elemental contents through energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of OPF, CS, and wood samples were measured. The results of OPF and CS were compared with wood considered as benchmark solid fuel. Proximate analysis was performed as per ASTM standard procedure in a muffle furnace and used thermos-gravimetric analysis technique. The ultimate analysis was used to determine the weight percentage of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen in CHNS analyzer. Elements analysis was done using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The ultimate analysis results show carbon content was higher in CS as compared to OPF and wood. The hydrogen content was higher in OPF. Proximate analysis results revealed that volatile matter was higher in wood, whereas fixed carbon and higher heating value were found higher in CS while ash content was lower in CS. From EDX results found that the OPF has Al, Si, Cl, and K, while, in wood and CS these elements are absent. The thermochemical characterization results of OPF and CS were comparable with the wood. Therefore, it concluded that OPF and CS have the potential to be used as renewable energy source by using appropriate energy conversion technologies, such as gasification, pyrolysis, and torrefaction

Investigation on the effect of blending ratio and airflow rate on syngas profile produced from co-gasification of blended feedstock

Shortages of feedstock supply due to seasonal availability, high transportation costs, and lack of biomass market are creating serious problems in continues operation of bioenergy industry. Aiming at this problem, utilization of blended feedstock is proposed. In this work blends of two different biomasses (wood and coconut shells) were co-gasified using externally heated downdraft gasifier. The effects of varying biomass blending ratio and airflow rate on gaseous components of syngas and its heating value were investigated. The results obtained from the experiments revealed that W20:CS80 blend yielded higher values for H2 (20 Vol.%) and HHV (18 MJ/Nm3) as compared to the other blends. The higher airflow rate has a negative effect on syngas profile and heating value. The CO and CH4 were observed higher at the start of the process, however, CO was observed decreasing afterward, and the CH4 dropped to 5.0 Vol.%. The maximum H2 and CH4 were obtained at 2.5 LPM airflow rate. The process was noticed more stable at low air flow rates. The HHV was observed higher at the start of process at low airflow rate. It is concluded that low airflow rate and a higher ratio of coconut shells can improve the syngas quality during co-gasification

The Study of Temperature Profile and Syngas Flare in Co-gasification of Biomass Feedstock in Throated Downdraft Gasifier

Biomass gasification is a common technology, which converted solid biomass into gaseous fuel at high temperature reactions in the presence of gasification agent. In this paper, co-gasification of lignocellulosic biomass materials with oil palm fronds (OPF) in a downdraft gasifier is presented. The biomass feedstocks considered were sugar cane bagasse (SCB) and wood (acacia mangium). Only one material was co-gasified with OPF at a time, with blending ratios of 80:20, 50:50 and 20:80. The resulting temperature profiles in the reactor and the syngas flare duration were recorded. It was found that the blend of 80:20 wood and OPF gave the best result as it produced the longest steady flare duration (49.5 min). On the other hand, a significant bridging problem was observed in the co-gasification OPF and SCB, and thus implying the need for process improvement

Pre-treatment of oil palm fronds biomass for gasification

Oil Palm Fronds (OPF) has been proven as one of the potential types of biomass feedstock for power generation. The low ash content and high calorific value are making OPF an attractive source for gasification. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of pre-treatments of OPF residual on gasification. The pre-treatments included the briquetting process and extensive drying of OPF which are studied separately. In briquetting process, the OPF were mixed with some portions of paper as an additives, leaflets, and water, to form a soupy slurry. The extensive drying of OPF needs to cut down OPF in 4–6 cm particle size and left to dry in the oven at 150°C for 24 hours. Gasification process was carried out at the end of each of the pre-treated processes. It was found that the average gas composition obtained from briquetting process was 8.07%, 2.06%, 0.54%,and 11.02% for CO, H2, CH4, and CO2 respectively. A good composition of syngas was produced from extensive dried OPF, as 16.48%, 4.03%, 0.91%,and 11.15% for CO, H2, CH4, and CO2 contents respectively. It can be concluded that pre-treatments improved the physical characteristics of biomass. The bulk density of biomass can be increased by briquetting but the stability of the structure is depending on the composition of briquette formulation. Furthermore, the stability of gasification process also depended on briquette density, mechanical strength, and formulation