Applying modern automotive technology on small scale gasification systems for CHP production: A compact hot gas filtration system

Abstract

Cost-effective and durable producer gas cleaning is a necessary step towards the promotion of sustainable gasification systems for electricity production. The automotive industry has vast technological experience on gas filtration both at experimental and theoretical level. In this study hot producer gas cleaning was attempted with the use of ceramic Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) initially designed to operate in automotive applications. Different types of DPFs were used as downstream hot gas filters in two atmospheric air blown bubbling fluidized bed gasifiers. The experiments included short and long duration tests conducted with olive kernels under various gasification temperatures and air ratios. Being the first attempt on the application of “narrowly structured” ceramic DPF in a gas heavily loaded with particulate matter (PM), main objective was to investigate the operation performance in terms of overall collection efficiency, loading and pressure drop profile, as well as regeneration performance and structural robustness. The results showed high PM filtration efficiency, and highlighted fields for further research. Poor operation performance was experienced due to inlet surface plugging and in some cases limited structural robustness under uncontrolled regeneration conditions. Insight into the overall behavior of the DPF's was gained via axial tomography and imaging analysis. Further research is needed in order to adapt different geometrical structures and obtain better control of loading and regeneration processes.