LECTURE 6

BIOMASS ENERGY CONVERSION TECHNOLOGIES –

GASIFICATION
Introduction
• Gasification and pyrolysis represent partial processes of combustion where the
product mix (gas, liquid and solid) can be controlled by altering temperature,
particle size, residence time, pressure and composition of the atmosphere under
which the biomass is treated.
• Gasification is a high temperature process in which a solid fuel is reacted with
steam, CO2, air, or hydrogen under O2-deficient conditions giving a mixture of
gases.
• The product gas mainly consists of H2, CH4, CO, CO2, H2O and N2, but also
contaminants like small char particles, ash and tars.
• After cleaning the gas makes is suitable for boiler, engine use, and turbine use to
produce heat and power (CHP).
• The gas produced is called producer gas.
• Gasification produces maximum gases than pyrolysis.
Introduction
• Four different processes can be distinguished in gasification: drying, pyrolysis,
oxidation and reduction.
Main techniques
1. Air Gasification
• Involves direct contact of biomass feedstock and air.
• Produces gas of a low calorific value (4 -12MJ/m3) due to dilution of the product gases
with nitrogen from air during the gasification process.
• The gas is suitable for boiler, engine and turbine operation.
2. Oxygen Gasification
• Biomass feedstock is in contact with oxygen gas
• Produces gas with medium calorific value (12 – 27MJ/m3)
• Gas produced is suitable for pipeline distribution and as synthetic gas for conversion to
methanol and gasoline.
3. Pyrolytic Gasification
• Biomass is heated indirectly in the absence of air or oxygen, but with steam and/or CO2
• Produces a gas with a similar calorific value as oxygen gasification.
Main techniques
• Notes:
• Air gasification is the most widely used technology.
• The use of oxygen increases the cost in producing the oxygen.
• Pyrolytic gasification requires provision of indirect heating.
Types of gasifiers
1. Up-draught or Counter Current
Gasifier
• The oldest and simplest type of
gasifier
Up-draught or Counter Current Gasifier
• The air intake is at the bottom and the gas leaves at the top.
• The combustion reactions take place near the grate at the bottom,
which are followed by reduction reactions somewhat higher up in the
gasifier.
• In the upper part of the gasifier, heating and pyrolysis of the feedstock
occur as a result of heat transfer by forced convection and radiation
from the lower zones.
• The tars and volatiles produced during this process will be carried in
the gas stream.
Up-draught or Counter Current Gasifier
• Advantages
• Robust and relatively simple construction.
• High charcoal burn-out and internal heat exchange leading to low gas exit
temperatures and high equipment efficiency.
• The possibility of operation with many types of feedstock (sawdust, cereal
hulls, etc.).
• Low exit temperature
Up-draught or Counter Current Gasifier
• Disadvantages
• The possibility of "channeling" in the equipment, which can lead to oxygen
break-through and dangerous, explosive situations.
• The necessity to install automatic moving grates.
• High residence time.
• The problems associated with disposal of the tar-containing condensates that
result from the gas cleaning operations.
• The latter is of minor importance if the gas is used for direct heat applications,
in which case the tars are simply burnt.
2. Downdraught or Co-Current Gasifier
Downdraught or Co-Current Gasifier
• Primary gasification air is introduced at or above the oxidation zone in the gasifier providing a
solution to the problem of tar entrainment in the gas stream (as in the updraught).
• Gas is removed at the bottom of the apparatus, so that fuel and gas move in the same direction.
• On their way down the acid and tarry distillation products from the fuel pass through a glowing
bed of charcoal and therefore are converted into permanent gases H2, CO2, CO and CH4.
• Depending on the temperature of the hot zone and the residence time of the tarry vapours, a more
or less complete breakdown of the tars is achieved.
• Advantages
• The possibility of producing a tar-free gas suitable for engine applications. (In practice,
however, a tar-free gas is seldom if ever achieved).
• Simple and Reliable.
• High carbon conversion (Lower level of organic components in the condensate therefore suffer
less from environmental objections than updraught gasifiers)
Downdraught or Co-Current Gasifier
• Disadvantages
• Inability to operate on a number of unprocessed fuels.
• In particular, fluffy, low density materials give rise to flow problems and
excessive pressure drop and the solid fuel must be pelletised or briquetted
before use.
• Suffer from the problems associated with high ash content fuels (slagging) to a
larger extent than updraught gasifiers.
• Lower efficiency (as compared to the updraught) resulting from the lack of
internal heat exchange as well as the lower heating value of the gas.
3. Cross-draught Gasifier
Cross-draught Gasifier
• Charcoal gasification results in very high temperatures (1500 °C and higher) in the
oxidation zone which can lead to material problems.
• In cross draught gasifiers insulation against these high temperatures is provided by
the fuel (charcoal) itself.
• Advantages
• Can be operated at very small scale.
• Installations below 10 kW (shaft power) can under certain conditions be
economically feasible.
• Very simple gas-cleaning train (only a cyclone and a hot filter) can be employed
when using this type of gasifier in conjunction with small engines.
• Disadvantages
• Minimal tar-converting capabilities and the consequent need for high quality (low
volatile content) charcoal.
4. Fluidized Bed Gasifier
• The operation of both up and downdraught gasifiers is influenced by
the morphological, physical and chemical properties of the fuel.
• Some of the problems commonly encountered are slagging and
extreme pressure drop over the gasifier
• A design approach aiming at the removal of the above difficulties is
the fluidized bed gasifier.
Fluidized Bed Gasifier
Fluidized Bed Gasifier
• Air is blown through a bed of solid particles at a sufficient velocity to keep these
in a state of suspension.
• The bed is originally externally heated and the feedstock is introduced as soon as a
sufficiently high temperature is reached.
• The fuel particles are introduced at the bottom of the reactor, very quickly mixed
with the bed material and almost instantaneously heated up to the bed temperature.
• As a result of this treatment the fuel is pyrolysed very fast, resulting in a
component mix with a relatively large amount of gaseous materials.
• Further gasification and tar-conversion reactions occur in the gas phase.
• Most systems are equipped with an internal cyclone in order to minimize char
blow-out as much as possible.
• Ash particles are also carried over the top of the reactor and have to be removed
from the gas stream if the gas is used in engine applications.
Fluidized Bed Gasifier
• Advantages
• Feedstock flexibility resulting from easy control of temperature, which can be kept
below the melting or fusion point of the ash (rice husks).
• Able to deal with fluffy and fine grained materials (sawdust etc.) without the need
of pre-processing.
• Disadvantages
• Problems with feeding, instability of the bed and fly-ash sintering in the gas
channels can occur with some biomass fuels.
• High tar content of the product gas (up to 500 mg/m³ gas), the incomplete carbon
burn-out and poor response to load changes.
• Very small fluidized bed gasifiers are not foreseen because of the control
equipment needed to cater for the latter difficulty
Gas Yields
• Typical gas composition data as obtained from wood and charcoal co-current
gasifiers operated on low to medium moisture content fuels (wood 20%, charcoal
7%).
Component Wood gas (vol%) Charcoal gas (vol%)

Nitrogen 50 – 54 55 – 65

Carbon monoxide 17 – 22 28 – 32

Carbon dioxide 9 – 15 1–3

Hydrogen 12 – 20 4 – 10

Methane
2–3 0–2

Heating value (MJ/Nm3)

5 - 5.9 4.5 - 5.6
Gas Conditioning
• Dependent on the application,
i. type of gasifier and contaminants in the fuel,
ii. a certain level of gas conditioning (cleaning/ cooling) is required.
• The most frequent impurities are hydrocarbons (tar), dust (particulates), ammonia,
sulphur, chloride, alkalies, etc. which need to be removed or converted.
• Dust is usually removed by cyclones and fabric filters.
• Ammonia, sulphur and chloride can be removed by scrubbers or by using
additives.
• The most critical component to be handled however is tar.
• Cooling is required for
i. combustion in gas engines,
ii. when filters are applied with a maximum allowable temperature.