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The Gasification Process

The gasification process involves 6 main steps: 1) drying biomass to remove moisture, 2) pyrolysis to break down biomass into gases, 3) char gasification reactions between char and gases, 4) char combustion to provide heat, 5) catalytic gasification to remove tar and reduce methane, and 6) the gasification process occurring in reactors. Catalytic gasification uses catalysts to reform tar into additional hydrogen and carbon monoxide or to catalytically steam reform or carbon dioxide reform methane.

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64 views4 pages

The Gasification Process

The gasification process involves 6 main steps: 1) drying biomass to remove moisture, 2) pyrolysis to break down biomass into gases, 3) char gasification reactions between char and gases, 4) char combustion to provide heat, 5) catalytic gasification to remove tar and reduce methane, and 6) the gasification process occurring in reactors. Catalytic gasification uses catalysts to reform tar into additional hydrogen and carbon monoxide or to catalytically steam reform or carbon dioxide reform methane.

Uploaded by

mohamed.mossad38
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The Gasification process:

A typical gasification process generally follows the sequence of steps listed below

1. drying
2. Pyrolysis and or combustion
3. Char gasification reaction
4. Char combustion reaction
5. Catalytic gasification
6. Gasification process in reactors
1. Drying:

Every kilogram of moisture in the biomass takes away a minimum of about 2242
kJ of extra energy from the gasifier to vaporize water, and that energy is not
recoverable. This loss is a concern, especially for energy applications. A certain
amount of pre-drying is thus necessary to remove as much moisture from the
biomass as possible before it is fed into the gasifier. For the production of a fuel
gas with a reasonably high heating value, most gasification systems use dry
biomass with a moisture content of 10-20%. This process takes places from the
beginning of the heating process until at 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Pyrolysis:

In pyrolysis, no external agent is needed. A slow pyrolysis or torrefaction process


moves the solid product forming more char. The fast pyrolysis process, on the
other hand, moves the product towards producing more liquid hydrocarbon.
pyrolysis involves the thermal breakdown of larger hydrocarbon molecules of
biomass into smaller gas molecules (condensable and non-condensable) with no
major chemical reaction with air, gas, or any other gasifying medium. This reaction
generally precedes the gasification step. One important product of pyrolysis is tar
formed through condensation of the condensable vapor produced in the process.
Being a sticky liquid, tar creates a great deal of difficulty in industrial use of the
gasification product.

3. Char gasification reactions:

The gasification step involves chemical reactions among the hydrocarbons in fuel,
steam, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and hydrogen in the reactor, as well as chemical
reactions among the evolved gases. Of these, char gasification is the most
important. The biomass char produced through pyrolysis of biomass is not
necessarily pure carbon. It contains a certain amount of hydrocarbon comprising
hydrogen and oxygen.
Biomass char is generally more porous and reactive than coke produced through
high temperature carbonization of coal. Thus, its reaction behavior is different
from that of chars derived from coal, lignite, or peat. Gasification of biomass char
involves several reactions between the char and the gasifying medium. The
following is a description of some of those reactions with carbon, carbon dioxide,
hydrogen, steam, and methane.
4. Char combustion reaction:

Most gasification reactions are endothermic. To provide the required heat of


reaction as well as that required for heating, drying, and pyrolysis, a certain
amount of exothermic combustion reaction is allowed in a gasifier.

Combustion reactions are generally faster than gasification reactions under similar
conditions. The combustion rates are at least one order of magnitude faster than the
gasification reaction rate. Owing to pore diffusion resistance, finer char particles’
combustion has a much higher reaction rate.

5. Catalytic gasification:

Use of catalysts in the thermochemical conversion of biomass may not be essential,


but it can help under certain circumstances. Two main motivations for catalyst’s
use are as follows:
1. Removal of tar from the product gas, when the product gas passes over the
catalyst particles, the tar or condensable hydrocarbon can be reformed on the
catalyst surface with either steam or carbon dioxide, thus producing
additional hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
2. Reduction in methane content of the product gas, for this, we can use either
catalytic steam reforming or catalytic carbon dioxide reforming of methane.

In steam reforming, methane reacts with steam at a temperature of 700_1100_C in


the presence of a metal-based catalyst, and thus it is reformed into CO and H2.

The carbon dioxide reforming of methane is not as widely used commercially as


steam reforming, but it has the special attraction of reducing two greenhouse gases
(CO2 and CH4) in one reaction, and it can be a good option for removal of carbon
dioxide from the product gas.

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