Development of biomass gasification to produce substitute fuels

The development of an efficient pressurized, medium-Btu steam-oxygen-blown fluidized-bed biomass gasification process was conducted. The overall program included initial stages of design-support research before the 12-ton-per-day (TPD) process research unit (PRU) was built. These stages involved the characterization of test-specific biomass species and the characteristics and limits of fluidization control. Also obtained for the design of the adiabatic PRU was information from studies with bench-scale equipment on the rapid rates of biomass devolatilization and on kinetics of the rate-controlling step of biomass char and steam gasification. The development program culminated with the sucessful operation of the PRU through 19 parametric-variation tests and extended steady-state process-proving tests. the program investigated the effect of gasifier temperature, pressure, biomass throughput rate, steam-to-biomass ratio, type of feedstock, feedstock moisture, and fludized-bed height on gasification performance. A long-duration gasification test of 3 days steady-state operation was conducted with the whole tree chips to indentify long-term effects of fluidized process conditions; to establish gasifier material and energy balances; to determine the possible breakthrough of low concentration organic species; and to evaluate the mechanical performance of the system components. Results indicate that the pressurized fludizied-bed process, can achieve carbon conversions of about 95% with cold gas thermal efficiences about 75% and with low and tar production. New information was collected on the oil and tar fraction, which relate to the process operating conditions and feedstock type. The different feedstocks studied were very similar in elemental compositions, and produced similar product gas compositions, but each has a different distribution and character of the oil and tar fractions. 11 refs., 45 figs., 18 tabs.