JEE651 Biomass for Heat and Power

Semester 1/2006

Thermal conversion technologies -

Gasification

Harmen, S.T., M.T.

Thermo-chemical conversion
 Gasification
Gasification involves devolatilisation and conversion of
biomass in an atmosphere of steam or air, carried out at
elevated temperatures (i.e. 500-1400C) and atmospheric or
elevated pressures
Gasification produces a medium or low calorific gas, called
Synthesis Gas
 Synthesis gas consists primarily of hydrogen (H2) and
carbon monoxide (CO), with lesser amounts of carbon
dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), methane (CH4), higher
hydrocarbons (C2+), and nitrogen (N2)

Different oxidant used produces gases with different heating

value:
Air-based gasifiers: 4 and 6 MJ/m3 (107-161 Btu/ft3)
O2 and steam-based gasifiers: 10 and 20 MJ/m3
(268-537 Btu/ft3)

Producer gas contains 70-80% of the energy originally

present in the biomass feedstock
 This gas can then be used for a number of applications:
Used as cooking gas
Burned in a diesel engine
Fuelled in a combined cycle power generation cycle
involving a gas turbine topping cycle and a steam turbine
bottoming cycle
Raw materials for chemical syntheses: methanol, DME,
diesel
 Syngas-to-Liquids Processes
Waxes Olefins
Diesel Gasoline
MTBE
Mixed Acetic Acid

acidic ion exchange

Alcohols Fischer-Tropsch

+ tion
CO
yla
Al

Formaldehyde
ka

Fe, Co, Ru

CH rbon
isobutylene
Zn u/Z /Co

li-

Ni
C O

do
O nO O/

3O
Ag
Cu oS 2

/C ; A

ca
pe

h,
M

r 2O Cu l 2O

,R
3

Co
/Z 3
nO
/A

zeolites
l 2O

Syngas Cu/ZnO Olefins

3

Isosynthesis
i-C4 Methanol Gasoline
ThO2 or ZrO 2
CO + H2 MTO

Dir
MTG
Co

Al2O3
tion

ect
,
Ox

H2O
Rh

Co ologa
os

Us
HC o( )(P

WGS
HC (CO

yn
o( CO Ph

e
Rh

Purify
CO ) 3P 3) 3

th

hom
DME
e
) 4 (B

sis

M100
Ethanol M85
u3

N2 over Fe/FeO
H2
)

NH3 Aldehydes
DMFC
(K2O, Al2O3, CaO)
Alcohols Graphics courtesy of Richard Bain, NREL
 The chemistry of gasification

Principal reactions occurring during gasification step

Exothermic Reactions
(1) Combustion
(2) Partial Oxidation
(3) Methanation
(4) Water-Gas Shift
(5) CO Methanation
Volatiles/char + O2 CO2
Volatiles/char + O2 CO
Volatiles/char + H2 CH4
CO + H2O CO2 + H2
CO + 3H2 CH4 + H2O

Endothermic Reactions
(6) Steam-Carbon reaction Volatiles/char + H2O CO + H2
(7) Boudouard reaction Volatiles/char + CO2 2CO
 Directly heated gasification
Pyrolysis and gasification occur in single vessel
Heat produced from reaction 1&2 (about 15%) is used for
all endothermic reactions (including pyrolysis)
Heating value of produced gas is lower

Indirectly heated gasification

Need two chambers: one acts as gasifier, the other as
char combustor
This approach separates reaction 1 from other gasification
reactions and reaction 2 is suppressed
Heating value of produced gas is higher
 Indirectly-heated fast fluid-bed and Indirectly-heated bubbling
fluid-bed
 Typical Gas Composition

Product gas composition of wood and charcoal of low to

medium moisture content (wood 20 %, charcoal 7%) operated
in co-current gasifiers

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
 Mechanism of tar formation
- When biomass is heated molecular bonds break
produce small molecules (gas) and larger molecules (known
as primary tar)
- These primary tars, which are always fragments of the
original materials, can react to secondary tars by further
reactions at the same temperature and to tertiary tars at high
temperature
- Tar formation pathway can be visualised as follows:
Mixed oxygenates Phenolic ethers Alkyl phenolics
(400 C) (500C) (600 C)
Heterocyclic ethers PAH Larger PAH
(700C) (800 C) (900C)
- Example of tar formed
 Biomass gasification for the heat application has generally
been successful, but much less success has been realized
for power applications, where gas quality is of prime
importance.

The amount of compounds that occur in biomass

gasification tars can be as high as several hundreds or
even several thousands for low temperature tars. The
amount and composition depend on:
- Type and properties of the biomass (moisture,
particle size)
- Gasification conditions (P, T, residence time)
- Type of gasifier (reactor configuration)
 Biomass Gasifiers

Fixed bed gasifiers: updraft and downdraft

 A typical design for a fixed-bed gasification plant for the
generation of electricity will include
Biomass receiving and storage
Drying
Gasification
Particulate removal
Generator system

Drying
Carried out in a rotary flue gas dryer
Hot flue gases from the engine exhaust will be used to
evaporate water from the biomass feed.
The final moisture content of biomass fed to the gasifier
should be <15%.
 In gasifier, the product gases flow through the hot part of
the bed and heavy tars produced in pyrolysis crack to form
more combustible gas components.

For gas cleaning, fuel gas is led through a cyclone to the air
pre-heater, where gasification air is heated to 300C
cooled to approximately 40C, and part of water vapour
present in gas will condense finally filtered through a
fabric filter to remove the remaining solid particulates.

In dual fuel (engine) operation carried out by VTT Energy

in 1995, approximately 15% of the energy fed into the diesel
engine is supplied with diesel oil while the rest of the
requirement was provided by fuel gas from a fixed-bed
gasifier.
 Fluidized-bed gasifier: Bubbling and Circulating
 Atmospheric-pressure fluidised bed gasification is
commercially proven technology for coal, peat and wood
wastes.

A fluidised-bed gasification system for power generation

consists of the following major units:
biomass receiving and storage
milling and drying
gasification and tar cracking
water wash of the raw gas
generator system
Biomass CFB GasifierDemonstration Project
(K Y M I J R V I P O W E R S TAT I O N, L A H T I , F I N L A N D)
Parameter Unit Value Value
Plant size MW 0.1 5.8
Technology type - Fixed-Bed Gasification Fluidised-Bed Gasification
Moisture after dryer % 15.0 15.0
Carbon conversion % 98.0 99.5
Wood feed rate (dry basis) kg/s 0.024 0.958
Air to wood ratio kg/kg 1.95 1.76
Raw gas LHV MJ/kg 4.59 5.00
Fuel gas temperature C 40 40
Fuel gas LHV MJ/kg 4.72 4.59
Fuel gas flow kg/s 0.07 2.99
Diesel Engine power MW 0.1 5.9
Plant power consumed MW - 0.1
Net output power MW 0.1 5.8
Wood input (LHV basis) 1
MW 0.45 17.2
Wood input (HHV basis)1 MW 0.54 20.9
Overall efficiency (LHV) % 22.5 33.8
Overall efficiency (HHV) % 18.6 27.9
Gasifier types: Advantages & Disadvantages
Integrated gasification combine cycle
(IGCC)
This system uses simple Brayton gas cycle (generally
associated with the gas turbine) and is essentially a
combined cycle
 The biomass-based IGCC electric generating plants normally
consist of the following process sections:
Fuel receiving, sizing, preparation, and drying
Gasification and gas cleaning (Gasification Island): Wood
feeding unit, Gasifier, Char combustion and air heating,
Primary cyclone, Tar cracker, Gas quench, Particulate
removal
Power Island
Gas turbine and generator
Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG)
Steam turbine and generator
Condenser, cooling tower, feed water and blowdown
treating unit
General plant utilities and facilities
 The products of gasification are burnt in a combustor to drive a gas
turbine while the heat in the exhaust flue gases is recovered in an
HRSG that in turn drives a steam turbine
This results to high overall efficiencies with the prospect of even
higher efficiencies if high temperature turbines and hot gas
cleanup systems were developed
 Preferred Gasification Technologies at Different Scales

Downdraft

Updraft

BubblingFluidisedBed

CirculatingFluidisedBed

PressurisedFluidisedBed

1kW 100kW 1MW 10MW 100MW 1000MWFuelcapacity

 Preferred Gasification-Based Electricity Technologies vs. Scale

Gasengine

Dualfueldieselengine (more robust than gas engine)

Dualfueldieselengine+steamcycle

IGCC
Fuel cell (not yet commercial)

5 10 15 20 25 95 100MWe
 Product gas cleanup

Contaminant Potential problem Treatments

Particulates Erosion Cyclones, filters

Alkali vapors Corrosion Cool/condense/remove
NH3, HCN Emissions Capture, scrubbing
H2S, HCl Corrosion, emissions Capture, scrubbing
Tars and oils Deposition, equipment Cracking, scrubbing,
clogging; waste water filtering, combusting
treatment (including catalytic tar
converter
 Product gas cleanup requirement for different applications

Extent of Gas Cleanup Required

Little Modest Higher Highest
Direct burning
IC engine
Gas turbine
Fuel cells
Fuel synthesis
 China Small-Scale Biopower Case Study

Characteristics:
- China produces > 700 million t/year of agricultural
residues, most of which is used for cooking and heating by
direct combustion in rural areas

- Several hundred small biomass gasifiers are currently

operating in China to provide cooking gas in rural villages,
which helps reduce terrible indoor air pollution problems

- But cooking and heating demands alone are too small

and unsteady to result in good economics. Adding power
generation allows increased scale and greater capacity
utilization more favorable economics.
 If used in combined heat and power production, half of total
residues produced in China could provide clean cooking gas
for 230 million people (27% of rural population) and generate
270 TWh of electricity

Case study project: Hechengli Village, Jilin Province

- A 200 kWe Gasifier/Engine + Cooking Fuel
- Construction and commissioning completed in Aug
2004, but due to institutional problems - no commercial
operation yet
 Clean Gas
CO 20
H2 15
CH4 2
Gas
Clean Up Gas CO2 10
Biomass Storage
Storage N2 53
Btu/ft3
Gasifier Blower 133
(hhv)

Households Gas Distribution for Engine

Cooking, Heating & Gross
& Factories Process heat Output
Generator
Engine
Exhaust

Auxiliary
Electricity to Utility Grid Power for
Households & Factories Electricity CHP plant
to Grid

Diesel engines preferred over spark-ignition: more efficient, durable, reliable,

simpler maintenance. But requires dual fueling: typically 70% diesel replacement.

200 kWe Gasifier/Engine + Cooking Fuel in Hechengli Village

Hechengli Plant Design

Planned
1800 Nm3/hr gasifier capacity
200 kW engine-generator
224 cooking and heating
customers
500 Nm3 gas storage
60 yuan/ton biomass cost
0.2 yuan/Nm3 gas price
0.5 yuan/kWh electricity price
Actual
1800 Nm3/hr gasifier capacity
200 kW engine-generator
125 cooking customers with 0
heating customers
300 Nm3 gas storage
90 yuan/ton biomass cost
0.2 yuan/Nm3 gas price
0.58 yuan/kWh electricity price

* Producer gas cooking-only projects in Jilin have not been

economically viable without subsidy Electricity generation is
essential for commercial viability
 Impact of Capacity Factor on Cost

Source: E.D. Larson, Small-scale gasification-based biomass power generation, Proceedings of the Workshop on
Small-Scale Biomass Power Generation, Changchun, Jilin Province, China, 12-13 January 1998.
Issues of tar: Small Gasifier-ICEs
Tar content must be < 30-50 mg/Nm3 in gas to IC engine
Wood chip gasifiers:
Ankur gasifier (Imbert type) cracks tar with high
temperatures at throat and catalytic action of charcoal in
reduction zone to give ~5 mg/Nm3 at gasifier exit with
subsequent water scrubbing and filtration aimed primarily at
particulate removal
IISc gasifier (stratified, open-top type) cracks tars thermally
with long residence times to give ~100 mg/Nm3 tar in raw gas.
Tar levels are further reduced to 10-30 mg/Nm3 with water
scrubber and sand-bed filter.
 Commercialization
Economic viability requires reasonably high capacity factors.
Unit capital costs must be reduced to insure competitiveness
(especially for smaller systems):
Standardize system design to lower cost of manufacture,
installation, servicing, etc.
Aggregate the market to lower transaction, maintenance,
and others costs for suppliers.
R&D and commercialization of advanced technologies that
reduce costs (e.g., microturbine), especially as biomass
costs rise.
Two major activity areas with particular relevance for Thailand:
Small-scale systems for crop residue utilization, e.g. in
China
Larger-scale systems for sugarcane residue utilization, e.g.
in Brazil
 Two synthetic liquid fuels of interest
Fischer-Tropsch Fuels
(straight-chain CnH2n , CnH2n+2)
F-T fuels of interest include high-cetane,
low-aromatic, no-sulfur diesel substitute
and naphtha as chemical feedstock
upgradable to gasoline blendstock.
F-T fuels production is commercially
established, and growing rapidly.
From coal:
Since 1950s in South Africa, 175k
bbl/day (bpd) total capacity
20k bpd, Inner Mongolia (2007)
120k bpd, China letter of intent signed
5k bpd demo, Gilberton, Pa (2008)
33k bpd, Wyoming (in planning)
57k bpd, Wyoming (proposed)
From stranded natural gas:
From 1990s in Malaysia: 13k bpd
Planned:
Qatar, 2005: 34k bpd
Nigeria, 2006: 34k bpd
Qatar, 2009: 140k bpd
Qatar, 2011: 154k bpd
Dimethyl Ether
(CH3OCH3)
Ozone-safe aerosol propellant, chemical
feedstock.
Current global production ~150,000
tons/year by drying methanol (CH 3OH).
Similar to LPG mild pressure needed to
keep as liquid.
Good diesel-engine fuel: high cetane #, no
sulfur, lower NOx, near-zero soot.
Rapidly expanding production worldwide to
supply (initially) markets for cooking and
heating fuel (LPG substitute).
110,000 tpy (from NG) facility to start
in China, 2005
800,000 tpy (from NG) facility to start
in Iran, 2006
At least two 800,000 tpy (from coal)
facilities in planning in China.
Sweden bio-DME activities at Varnamo
gasification pilot-plant facility aiming at
heavy-vehicle applications.
 Catalytic synthesis of fuels from CO+H2

Basic overall reactions:

CO 2H - CH - H O Fischer-Tropsch liquids
2 2 2
3CO 3H CH OCH CO Dimethyl ether
2
2 3 3
CO 2 H CH OH Methanol
2 3
Three reactor designs:
Fuel product (vapor)
Fixed-bed (gas phase): low one-pass + unreacted syngas
CO 2H - C HFuel - product
HO (vapor) Fischer-Tropsch liquids
conversion, difficult heat removal 2 2+ unreacted
2 syngas
Disengagement
Fluidized-bed (gas phase): better 3CO 3H CH OCH CO2 zone Dimethyl ether CONDITIONS
2 3 Disengagement
3 TYPICAL
conversion, more complex operation Steam zone
TYPICAL REACTION CONDITIO
P =P 50-100 atm.
= 50-100 atmospheres
Catalyst
Slurry-bed (liquid phase): much higherCO 2 H 2 CH 3OH powder
Methanol
T =T 200-300
= 200-300 Co
o
C
Steam
single-pass conversion (e.g., 80% vs. Catalyst
slurried
in oil
40% for F-T) Once-through designs powder
catalyst
slurried CH OCH
favored when electricity can be sold Cooling waterin oil
CO
CH OH
3
3
3

CnH2n+2
Liquid phase FT reactors are commercial H2
catalyst
Synthesis gas CO CH3OCH3 (depending
LP-MeOH commercially demonstrated
Cooling water (CO + H2) CH3OH
on catalyst

LP-DME near commercial CnH2n+2

H2 (depending
Synthesis gas
Focus here on OT process designs with (CO + H2) on catalyst)
LP synthesis. Liquid Phase Reactor
 Summary of Key Characteristics

Gasification
Only fully commercial for direct gas combustion
applications
Gasifiers need uniform size and composition of feed with
low moisture
Gasifiers are relatively simple technologies, but
considerable investment is needed in gas cleanup for high-
value uses of the gas
Clean gas can meet stringent air emissions limits
Comparatively favorable economics at smaller scales (e.g.,
< 10 MWe)
 Advantages of gasification
(compared to conventional combustion technologies)

The combined heat and power generation via biomass

gasification techniques connected to gas-fired engines or gas
turbines can achieve significantly higher electrical efficiencies
between 22 % and 37 % compared to biomass combustion
technologies with steam generation and steam turbine (15 % to
18 %).

Due to the improved electrical efficiency of the energy conversion

via gasification,
1. the potential reduction in CO2 is greater than with combustion.
2. The formation of NOx compounds can also be largely
prevented, although the NOx advantage may be partly lost if
the gas is subsequently used in gas-fired engines or gas
turbines.
3. Significantly lower emissions of NOx, CO and hydrocarbons
can be expected when the produced gas is used in fuel cells.