Gasification

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GASIFICATION
 Is a process that converts carbonaceous biomass into combustible gases
(e.g., H2, CO, CO2, and CH4) with specific heating values
 This mixture is called producer gas or syngas
 Process occurred in the presence of partial oxygen (O2) supply (typically
35% of the O2 demand for complete combustion) and/or suitable
oxidants such as steam and CO2
 Purpose of gasification is to create valuable gaseous products that can be
used directly for combustion, or be stored for other applications
 The challenges to achieve a clean and useable fuel gas is addressed
through gasifier design and post-gasification processing to remove tar
and particulate contaminants from the gas stream

Intro video

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PRODUCT COMPOSITION
Liquid
CH4 H2 4-6 %
1-7 10-19 Char
8-12%
CO2 O2 Gas
82-88%
10-15 0.4-1.5

CO N2

15-30 43-
60 Product of gasification in wt%
Composition of gaseous
product from various
biomass fuels by different
gasification method (% by
volume)

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CONDITIONS
 High temperature (800–1300 ◦C)
 Pressure : 1 - < 10 bars
 Residence time : up to 1800 s
 Heating rate: High ( up to 10,000ᵒC/min)
 Utilize air or oxygen in partial oxidation or combustion
processes

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PROCESS

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PROCESS
 Pretreatment:
 The biomass is transformed into chips, crushed, or
shredded material that end up as sized and dried chips,
pellets, briquettes, and powders
 Predrying :dry biomass with a moisture content of 10-20%

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PROCESS
 Drying
 Drying is what removes the moisture in the biomass before it
enters pyrolysis.
 When biomass is fed into the gasifier, the constituent particles are
dried by the heat in the gasifier, releasing steam into the gas phase
 Above 100C, the loosely bound water that is in the biomass is
irreversibly removed.
 As the temperature rises further, the low-molecular-weight
extractives start volatilizing.
 This process continues until a temperature of approximately 200C
is reached
 High moisture content fuel, and/or poor handling of the moisture
internally, is one of the most common reasons for failure to
produce clean gas

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PROCESS
 Pyrolysis
 Biomass begins to “fast decompose” once its
temperature rises above around 240ᵒC.
 The biomass breaks down into a combination of
solids, liquids and gasses.
 The solids that remain commonly call “charcoal”.
 The gasses and liquids that are released
collectively call “tars”.
 Volatile compounds desorb from the biomass;
then larger molecules, such as cellulose,
hemicellulose, and lignin, start to decompose,
emitting fragments into the gas phase

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PROCESS
 Combustion
 The combustible substance of a solid fuel is
usually composed of elements C, H & O.
 In complete combustion CO2 is obtained from
carbon in fuel and H2O is obtained from the
hydrogen, usually as steam.
 The combustion reaction is exothermic and
yields a theoretical oxidation temperature of
1450⁰C
 The main reactions, therefore, are:
 C + O2 = CO2 (+ 393 MJ/kg mole) (1)
 2H2 + O2 = 2H2 O (- 242 MJ/kg mole) (2)

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PROCESS
 Reduction
 The products of partial combustion (water, carbon dioxide and
uncombusted partially cracked pyrolysis products) now pass
through a red-hot charcoal bed
 Reduction in a gasifier is accomplished by passing carbon
dioxide (CO2) or water vapor (H2O) across a bed of red hot
char (C).
 Reduction will strip of oxygen atoms off completely
 The hot char is highly reactive with oxygen, and thus strips the
oxygen off the gasses, and redistributes it to as many single
bond sites as possible. The oxygen is more attracted to the bond
site on the C than to itself, thus no free oxygen can survive in its
usual diatomic O2 form.
 All available oxygen will bond to available C sites as individual
O, until all the oxygen is gone.
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PROCESS
 Reduction
 When all the available oxygen is redistributed as single atoms,
reduction stops.
 Through this process, CO2 is reduced to CO and H2O is reduced
to H2 and CO.
 The following reduction reactions take place.
 C + CO2 = 2CO (- 164.9 MJ/kg mole) (3)
 C + H2O = CO + H2 (- 122.6 MJ/kg mole) (4)
 CO + H2O = CO + H2 (+ 42 MJ/kg mole) (5)
 C + 2H2 = CH4 (+ 75 MJ/kg mole) (6)
 CO2 + H2 = CO + H2O (- 42.3 MJ/kg mole) (7)
 Reactions (3) and (4) are main reduction reactions and being
endothermic have the capability of reducing gas temperature.
Consequently the temperatures in the reduction zone are
normally 800-10000C. Lower the reduction zone temperature (~
700-8000C), lower is the calorific value of gas.
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Parameters and its effects on
hydrogen yield of steam gasification

http://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2013.12.025 14
TYPES

Types of
gasifiers

Fixed bed Fluidized bed Plasma

gasifiers gasifiers Gasifier

Circulating
Bubbling bed Entrained flow
Updraft Downdraft Crossdraft fluidized bed
(BFB) gasifiers
(CFB)

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FIXED BED GASIFIERS
 Consist of cylindrical reactor in which solid biomass
fuel gasifying and produced gas move either upward or
downward
 Can be operated in either batch or continuous mode
 These types of gasifier are simple in construction and
generally operate with:
 high carbon conversion
 long solid residence time
 low gas velocity
 low ash carry over
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UPDRAFT GASIFIER
 The gasifier can be operated in batch mode, in
such a way that the biomass is loaded once into
the gasifier, which is operated until the biomass
is consumed.
 In continuous operation, biomass is continuously
fed into the top of the gasifier while the formed
ash is removed from the bottom.
 The advantage of this gasifier is the good heat
exchange in the reactor: the outgoing hot gas is
cooled down while heating the incoming fresh
biomass.
 Biomass with moisture content up to 60% wet
basis can be used
 Can process relatively small particle and accepts
come size variation in the fuel feedstock 19
UPDRAFT GASIFIER (cont’d)
 The air enters at the bottom of the bed and moves up
through the bed of biomass
 The biomass moves in the opposite direction from top to
bottom.
 In the bottom, the hot charcoal meets the incoming fresh
air, ensuring the good burnout of carbon in the ash.
 Complete combustion of char at the bottom of the bed
liberating CO2 and H2O
 These hot gases (∼1000 ◦C) pass through the bed above,
where they are reduced to H2 and CO and cooled to 750 ◦C
 Continuing up the reactor, the reducing gases (H2 and CO)
pyrolyze the descending dry biomass and finally dry the
incoming wet biomass, leaving the reactor at a low
temperature (∼500 ◦C)
 However, since the pyrolysis gas does not come in contact
with the entering air, the outgoing gas contains high
amounts of tars.
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DOWNDRAFT GASIFIER
 The biomass is also fed from the top while the air
is introduced into the bed from either the top or
the side and gas is drawn off at the bottom
 Both the biomass and the gas move downward
during the gasification process
 Because the pyrolysis gases pass through the
oxidation and charcoal reduction zones, the tar in
the gas is effectively reduced (<100 mg/Nm3)
 At high loads, the temperature in the gasifier is
higher than at low loads, meaning that tar
reduction works better at high than at low loads.
 Since it is important to maintain constant
temperature in the oxidation zone, downdraft
gasifiers usually have a throat, i.e., a narrow
passage just below the air injection point.

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DOWNDRAFT GASIFIER (cont’d)
 It is easier to obtain a constant temperature in this
arrangement and all gas is forced to pass through the
narrowed throat.
 The disadvantages of downdraft gasifiers are that the
produced gas is very hot, since it leaves the bed from a
very hot zone, and internal heat recovery is less effective
than in an updraft gasifier
 The ash contains a higher proportion of unburned
charcoal and the ash and dust content of the produced
gas is much higher than in gas from an updraft gasifier.
 This type of gasifier found most suitable to convert high
volatile fuel (wood, biomass) to low tar gas and
therefore most suitable design for power generation.
 Strict fuel requirement of 4-10 mm, less than 25%
moisture content and lower gasification efficiency
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CROSSDRAFT GASIFIER
 The biomass passes from top to bottom in the
same manner as in other fixed-bed gasifiers
 However, the gas passes from one side to the
other, perpendicularly to the biomass flow
 This type of gasifier is intended for gasifying
charcoal, i.e., a fuel low in volatiles and tars
 The produced gas requires little cleaning (a
cyclone and bed filter) and the gasifier is
suitable for very small-scale applications (<10
kW)
 However, if one puts fuel rich in volatiles and
tars in this type of gasifier, this will result in
very large amounts of tars and hydrocarbons
in the produced gas.

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CROSSDRAFT GASIFIER (cont’d)
 Suitable for low ash fuels such as wood,
charcoal and coke
 Is quite good due to ability to concentrate
partial zone which operates at
temperatures up to 2000 ◦C
 Start up time (5–10 min) is much faster
than that downdraft and updraft units
 The relatively higher temperature in cross
draft gas producer has an obvious effect
on gas composition such as high carbon
monoxide, and low hydrogen and
methane content when dry fuel such as
charcoal is used

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FLUIDIZED BED GASIFIER
 In a fluidized bed, solid particulate material is suspended in
moving liquid or gaseous fluid
 Fluidization process is dependence on the velocity of the fluid
flow
 At low flow velocities, the solid particulate bed is unaffected,
and the bed acts as an ordinary stationary bed. At increasing
applied flows, the bed expands, increasing the void in the bed
 At a certain flow, corresponding to the minimum fluidization
velocity, the particles float free, collectively acting as a liquid
 At still higher flows, bubbles appear in the bed
 At a sufficiently high flow velocity, the particulate material will
be blown out of the reactor in a two-phase flow

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FLUIDIZED BED GASIFIER
 Its advantage over fixed bed gasifiers being the uniform temperature
distribution achieved in the gasification zone
 The bed is 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 pyrolyzed 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 beds can remove the grate limitation of the moving bed gasifier, due
to their high mixing rates and outstanding heat transfer rates, they can achieve
through-puts of over 1500 kg m-2 h-1 of dry biomass

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FLUIDIZED BED GASIFIER
 Typical bed material is usually some sort of sand, SiO2.
 However, the biomass contains fairly high levels of alkali,
mainly salts of potassium, K.
 At high temperatures, the alkalis attack the SiO2, forming
alkali-silicates with low melting points.
 This might cause problems due to agglomeration of the
bed material
 To prevent this problem, the bed material can consists of
non-silicates such as magnesite, MgCO3, or dolomite,
CaMg(CO3)2.
 The choice of bed material can also affect the chemical
reactions in the bed.

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BUBBLING FLUIDIZED BED (BFB)
 The fuel is evenly distributed throughout the
bed and cannot become stuck or cause
channelling.
 Due to the automatic density separation in the
bed, dense particles sink while light particles
leave the bed with the gas.
 BFB gasifiers can handle high-ash-content fuels
 They are well suited for continuous operation
and scalable to a wide range of sizes, allowing
for large-scale industrial plants.
 Since the BFB gasifier resembles a CSTR, a fairly
high amount of tars and unburned char leaves
the bed even if gas phase reactions occur in the
freeboard area

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CIRCULATING FLUIDIZED BED (CFB)
 Instead, some of the bed and char
particles that are sufficiently small
become entrained with the
produced gas and leave the gasifier.
 Those particles are separated from
the gas in a cyclone and returned to
the bottom of the bed.
 In CFB gasifiers, the burnout of the
char is higher and the tar levels are
lower than in BFB gasifiers.
 CFB gasifiers are also somewhat
cheaper to construct than are BFB
gasifiers of corresponding capacity.

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ENTRAINED FLOW GASIFIERS
 The entrained-flow (EF) gasifier was originally developed for
coal gasification, and there are many variants of the EF
gasifier design. Well-known EF processes have been
developed by Koppers-Toptzek, Texaco, Shell, Pernflo, and
GSP
 The fuel must be ground very finely and can be mixed with
water to form slurry sprayed into the gasifier, although some
variants inject the fuel powder and water separately.
 Oxygen or air is mixed into the fuel-water aerosol and the
mixture is lit by a pilot flame
 The feed and air move cocurrently and the reactions occur in
a dense cloud of very fine particles at high pressures, varying
between 19.7 and 69.1 atm and very high temperatures >1000
C.
 Due to high temperature, most of the tars and lower
hydrocarbons are converted, and the produced gas requires
little cleaning
 This type of gasifier has an elevated throughput of syngas

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PLASMA GASIFIER
 Is a gasification process that decomposes biomass into basic
components, such as H2, CO, and CO2 in an oxygen-starved
environment at an extremely high temperature
 Plasma is regarded as the 4th state of matter; it is an ionized gas
produced by electric discharges.
 A plasma torch is a tubular device that has two electrodes to produce an
arc
 It is an independent heat source that is neither affected by the feed
characteristics nor the air/oxygen/steam supply. When electricity is fed,
an arc is created, and the electricity is converted into heat through the
resistance of the plasma
 A plasma torch can heat the biomass feedstock to a temperature of 3000
C or higher (up to 15,000 C)
 Under such extremely elevated temperature, the injected biomass
stream can be gasified within a few milliseconds without any
intermediate reactions
 The plasma technique has high destruction and reduction efficiencies
 Any form of wastes, for example, liquid or solid, fine particles or bulk
items, dry or wet, can be processed efficiently
 In addition, it is a clean technique with little environmental impact
 Plasma technique has great application potential for treating a wide
range of hazardous wastes

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ADVANTAGES
 reduced CO2 emissions
 compact equipment requirements with a
relatively small footprint
 accurate combustion control
 high thermal efficiency
 more versatile usage of the solid byproducts

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APPLICATION AND PRODUCTS
Main component of gasification
system
1. Biomass Storage and Metering System
 Depending upon the size, consistency and nature of the biomass, the material is often
routed through a hammer-mill or tub grinder/classifier before entering the plant’s
metering bin located above the feed system
 The material is fed by gravity into the metering bin where it enters a screw feed system.
 The material is then conveyed through a proprietary sealing mechanism that serves as the
pressure seal on the front end of the system, keeping air out of the reformer and keeping
syngas from backing up into the feed system
2. Air / Oxygen Gas Supply System
 Air / Oxygen from the tank is routed through a heat exchanger, where medium pressure
steam is used to indirectly pre-heat the air / oxygen gas stream before introduction to the
gasifier
3. Gas Cleaning System
Applications of Gasification
 The low calorific value (LCV) gases produced from
air gasification of biomass can be used to fire Boilers
(directly), as well as kilns, and will generate power in
internal combustion engines (ICEs) and gas turbines.
 The mild calorific value (MCV) gas has a wider range
of applications: production of chemicals, liquid fuels,
and hydrogen via catalytic conversion after its
purification
Applications of Gasification
 Power Systems
 Scale << 1MW, the preferred technology combination today is a moving bed
gasifier and internal combustion engines (ICES) combination
 Scale >> than 10 MW, the combination is of a fluidized bed gasifier and a gas
turbine
 LCV gas systems :
 need to retain the enthalpy of the gas stream, so that hot gas cleaning is required
 may require advances in high temperature filtration
 to ensure that particles and alkali metals do not reach the high temperature sections of
gas turbines, as this causes erosive wear and metallurgical corrosion
 MCV gas system :
 the energy penalty of cooling the gas prior to cleaning it is relatively small
 by cooling the gas, it is possible to use very efficient quench and scrubbing technology,
including wet electrostatic precipitators to ensure a very clean and dry gas for
compression for use in engines and gas turbines.
 The disadvantage of this gas conditioning pathway is that there is a concomitant
production of both a solid and liquid stream, that if it cannot be recycled internally in
the process, it will have to be treated to ensure its safe disposal in the environment.
Applications of Gasification
 Liquid Fuels and Chemicals Production
Liquid Fuels and Chemicals
Production
 Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis
 Hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO) in the syngas are reacted over a catalyst to form
a wide range of hydrocarbon chains of various lengths
 Typical catalysts used are generally iron or cobalt based
 The reaction is performed at a pressure of 20–40 bar and a temperature range of either
200-250˚C or 300-350˚C
 Iron catalysts are generally used at the higher temperature range to produce olefins for a
lighter gasoline product
 Cobalt catalysts are used at the lower temperature range to produce waxy, long-chained
products that can be cracked to diesel
 Both of these catalysts can be used in a range of different reactor types (fixed bed, slurry
reactor etc) – for example, CHOREN use a cobalt catalyst in a fixed bed reactor, developed
by Shell, to produce FT diesel.
Liquid Fuels and Chemicals
Production
 Methanol synthesis
 Methanol production from syngas involves reacting CO, H2 and a
small amount of CO2 over a copper-zinc oxide catalyst
 The reaction proceeds via the water gas shift reaction, followed by
hydrogenation of CO2
 The process is carried out at 220˚C-300˚C and 50-100bar
 Raw products fed into a distillation plant to recycle unused syngas,
volatiles, water and higher alcohols back to the reactor
 Mixed alcohols synthesis
 Mixed alcohols synthesis, also known as Higher Alcohol Synthesis
(HAS) is very similar to both FT and methanol synthesis
 It often uses catalysts modified from those processes, with added
alkali metals to promote the mixed alcohols reaction.
 The process produces a mixture of alcohols such as methanol,
ethanol, propanol, butanols and some heavier alcohols
 DiMethyl Ether Synthesis
 DiMethyl Ether (DME) has been of interest to a number of fuels developers
as it has similar properties to propane
 Its production from methanol is by means of dehydration
 By using mixed methanol synthesis catalysts and a dehydration catalyst
such as alumina, DME is produced in high yield and conversion per pass
from syngas, at much lower pressures of 5 MPa (reduced capital
investment) than straight methanol synthesis
 Video summary

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More info:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4cg2V_-Di4
 Biomass Energy Through Gasification- Part 2

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