Biomass 18 (1989) 163-168

Overview of Biomass Gasification in the USA

T. R. Miles & T. R. Miles, Jr

Thomas R. Miles, ConsultingDesign Engineers,5475 SW Arrowwood Lane, Portland,

Oregon 97225, USA

ABSTRACT

Gasification in the United States advanced rapidly in research and applic-

ation from 1978 to 1984. Few gasifiers have been installed since then and
several have been shut down. Large fluidized-bed gasifiers are used to dry
clay and to generate power. Most gasifiers are retrofitted to small boilers,
dryers and kilns. Until energy price increases can stimulate further
growth, new activities in gasification are oriented toward refuse conver-
sion to energy and small power generation.

Key words: biomass gasification, commercial use, fluidized-bed gasifica-

tion, gasifier installations.

C U R R E N T USE

Many gasifiers were installed in the USA between 1978 and 1984 to
replace oil and gas in boilers, crop dryers, lumber kilns, veneer dryers,
brick kilns, and greenhouses. Using directories compiled by regional
organizations of the US Department of Energy, and interviews with State
energy departments, gasifier manufacturers, and users, our firm found
35 gasifiers operating as shown in Table 1. In addition, there are over
3000 biomass combustion systems in the USA. Over half of the biomass
gasifiers and combustors were located in the 13 Southeastern states.~-7
Table 2 lists most of the systems currently available in the US. The
only recent imported gasogens have been NEI Fluidyne from New
Zealand and KHD, Fritz Werner and Imbert from the Federal Republic
of Germany. Most existing gasifiers use from 150 to 1000 kg h-~ of
wood wastes on updraft moving grates. They operate at near combustion
conditions with high levels of carbon dioxide in the gas. They are small
163
Biomass 0144-4565/89/S03.50 - © 1989 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd, England.
Printed in Great Britain
164 T. R. Miles, T. R. Miles, Jr

TABLE 1
Commercial Gasifiers Operating in the USA

Size Number Type Fuel Application

(GJ h - i)

125 2 Fluidized bed Wood Clay dryers

82 1 Fluidized bed Wood Power boiler 5 MW
10 2 Downdraft Wood Power boiler
25 2 Fluidized bed Rice hulls Process heat
12-70 3 Updraft Wood Brick kilns
1 - 26 14 Updraft Wood Dry kiln, space heat
5-25 4 Updraft Wood Space heat only or
process heat
6 2 Updraft Corn cobs Corn dryer
0.2-6 5 Downdraft Wood, peach pits Greenhouse

TABLE 2
Gasification and Pyrolysis Systems Manufactured in the USA

Company Type" Operating

Ablestien Energy, Inc. dd, e Yes

Alternate Energy Industries ud, pyro Pilot
Buck Rogers, Inc. dd Pilot
Combustion Power, Inc. fb Yes
Enerco Associates ud, char Pilot
Energy Products of Idaho, Inc. fb Yes
Energy Systems, Inc. fb, e Pilot
Halcyon Associates, Inc. ud Yes
Hercules, Inc. ud Yes
Heuristic Engineering, Inc. ud Pilot
Hodam and Associates, Inc. dd N/A
Process Combustion, Inc. fb Pilot
Producers Rice Mill, Inc. fb Yes
Pyrotech, Inc. ef, pyro Projected
Surlite Corporation fb Yes
Syngas Systems, Inc. dd, e Pilot

"dd Downdraft; ud, updraft; fb, fluidized bed; ef, entrained flow; e, engine; pyro, pyroly-
sis.
N/A, Not applicable.

a n d h a v e n o liquid e f f l u e n t o f e n v i r o n m e n t a l c o n c e r n . S o m e use o t h e r
fuels s u c h as p e a c h pits, c o r n c o b s o r rice hulls.
C u r r e n t e n e r g y p r i c e s limit small scale gasifiers to s e a s o n a l o r inter-
m i t t e n t use, like o n e in S o u t h C a r o l i n a w h i c h ~saved' a d r y kiln f r o m
 Overview of biomass gasification in the USA 165

closing because of high energy prices when it was installed in 1978, but is
rarely used now. Although many gasifiers have been abandoned, and
several manufacturers have gone bankrupt, new units have been installed
and others are planned. For example, Hercules, Inc., recently retrofitted
updraft traveling grate gasifiers to a hospital boiler in Minnesota, and a
lumber dry kiln in Georgia.
At a larger scale, three fluidized-bed gasifiers, each consuming 8-10
tonnes h-~ of wood, were installed in 1985 and 1986. Energy products
of Idaho supplied an 82 GJ h-~ wood gasifier to generate 5 MW power
from steam for Catalyst Inc., in North Powder, Oregon. The former
Power Recovery Systems designed two gasifiers for Southern Electric
International, Inc., to dry clay in Quincy, Florida. Each wood gasifier
produces 125 GJ h-~ of low-Btu gas which is used to heat a fluidized-
bed dryer. The Florida gasifiers have demonstrated very high availability
- over 85% -- since start up. These projects were initiated when energy
-

prices were high.

Gasifiers are only being used to generate power in the US where both
biomass waste disposal costs and electricity prices are high. In this way,
Ablestien Energy, Inc., formerly Pyrenco, will use downdraft gasogen
plants to dispose of pelletized wood waste in North Carolina and
generate 4 MW. Energy Systems, Inc., is developing a fluidized-bed
gasifier to generate power from sawmill residues in Oregon. Syngas Sys-
tems, Inc., is developing modular power plants with pressurized down-
draft gasifiers to dispose of urban wood waste in New York and
Southern California Edison, a public power utility, hopes to dispose of
fuel from municipal solid waste in a fluidized-bed gasifier. The refuse
gasifier would provide low cost, low-Btu gas with low NO x emissions
when retrofitted to an existing power plant.
Biomass gasifiers have not been used, as once expected, for lime kilns,
large boilers, or gas turbines. Wood gasifiers have not proven to be
attractive for electrical power generation in remote native Alaskan
villages where liquid fuels are subsidized by the government.
Commercial attempts to make charcoal by pyrolysis in rotary kilns
and in mobile and stationary fluidized beds were not successful.
Charcoal is still made from wood wastes in multiple hearth furnaces
where off-gases are burned in plant boilers. Charcoal contracts are
difficult to obtain. However, one company has arranged to sell the char
by-products from its downdraft gasifiers for wastewater treatment.
Another company, Pyrotech, Inc., intends to process wood char from
suspension flash pyrolysis into high quality carbon products. Oils and gas
from the process are to be fired in a combined cycle arrangement of
three gas turbines and a boiler to generate process heat and power for a
Kraft pulp mill in Samoa, California.
166 T. R. Miles, T. R. Miles, Jr

Gasification has helped to solve slagging and emissions problems of

biomass combustion in fluidized-bed systems. Two 25 GJ h-1 fluidized
beds gasify and combust rice hulls at Producers Rice Mills in Stuttgart,
Arkansas. Two tonnes per hour of rice hulls are gasified in the fluidized
bed, and air is added in stages above the bed to burn the gas. High off-gas
temperatures are achieved without slagging ash in the bed. Other
gasifiers of this design will generate power from rice hulls in California.
The same principle is used to gasify and burn municipal sewage sludge,
with low NOx, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions in a plant
designed by Combustion Power Corporation for the City of Los
Angeles, California.
Heuristic Engineering, Inc., improved fixed-bed gasification in a 3 GJ
h- l, two-stage, pile-burning system so that very wet wood wastes can be
gasified and burned efficiently to dry wood particles and lumber. To
burn dry residues, Waste Conversion Systems Inc., combined entrained
flow and updraft moving grate gasification principles with an integral gas
burner for use on package boilers, dryers and kilns.
Over 50 suspension or entrained flow systems by Aqua-Chem, Inc.,
and others use gasification principles to improve combustion in burners
retrofitted to boilers at schools and wood processing plants. Densified
pellets or fine wood fuel is pulverized, partially gasified and burned in
suspension as a mixture of combustible gas and particles.

RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION

High energy prices combined with US Department of Energy support

created many updraft, downdraft and fluidized-bed gasifiers at the
laboratory and demonstration scales. University departments of
mechanical, agricultural and chemical engineering developed and tested
biomass gasifiers on engines, boilers and dryers. Over 60 US companies
and institutions are engaged in biomass gasification research. 8 In 1984
representatives from these organizations identified the following
research priorities for low-Btu gas: standards for fuel and gas quality,
testing and evaluation of low-Btu gas systems, greater exchange of
information, improved permitting procedures and easier financing.9
Research to produce synthesis gases for methanol and oils for gasoline
substitutes has led to a significant accumulation of engineering data on
wood gasification from several pilot plants and growing experience with
other fuels. Table 3 lists six gasification and pyrolysis systems available
for commercial development. Current research includes the use of pulse
combustion as a heat source for fluidized-bed gasification, catalytic
 Overview of biomass gasification in the USA 167

TABLE 3
Research Gasifiers Available for Commercial Application

Company Product

Battelle-Columbus Laboratories medium Btu

Georgia Tech Research pyrolysis
Institute of Gas Technology medium Btu
Solar Energy Research Institute pyrolysis
Solar Energy Research Institute medium Btu
University of Missouri-Rolla medium Btu

destruction of tars in biomass-derived gases, and liquid gasification of

high moisture wastes.l°
New challenges for biomass gasification in the US are: the design of
more durable industrial gasifiers, improved environmental emissions and
efficiency, gasification of slagging fuels including agricultural and
municipal residues and further development of small power generation
systems. To meet changing air quality standards, gasification systems
must control emissions of fine particulates, nitrogen oxides, and carbon
monoxide. Hot gas cleaning systems must be developed and improved
designs for reactors, gas burners and engines are also needed.
Research has advanced gasifier development and defined conditions
of economic feasibility. For example, one study, concluded that a green-
house could only afford to generate power with a gasogen if it used
75-100% of the waste heat from the engine for space heating. ~ Another
demonstrated that straws and stalks can fuel engines when certain
sequestering agents and gas cleanup systems are used. ~2 Most of this
research has not been applied to industry because of the drop in fossil
fuel prices.
In order to stimulate applied research, the emerging technology of
low-Btu gasification will need solid waste disposal costs greater than
USS45 tonne-~ and conventional energy prices greater than USS4.30
GJ- i (USS4.50 MMBtu- l) and USS0.06 kW h- ~.

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168 T. R. Miles, T. R. Miles, Jr

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