Chapter 8 - Advances in gasification techniques

Abstract

The world's energy markets are heavily dependent on the fossil fuels. These resources not only take long time to be formed but also create air pollution when consumed. The only energy resource that will be able to substitute for such problems is biomass. This chapter gives the overview of converting biomass to fuels and also discussed the gasification process in detail. Kinetic models have been discussed which mainly used to improve the simulation of experimental values using kinetic rate equation. Drying, pyrolysis, combustion, and reduction are the four zones in a gasification process. Process parameters of gasification and the kinetics of it related to oxygen quantity, air fuel ratio, concentration, temperature, and others are discussed. Kinetic model concentrates on estimating gasification zone length and diameter which is used to investigate the factors affecting the dependency on operation and maintenance performance such as biomass water content, insulation of a reactor, air intake temperature, and the gasification load. Various techniques of tar minimization have been discussed along with the advanced gasification process. Tar is an undesired product that has to be measured and limited. Plasma gasification, super critical water gasification, sorption enhanced reforming, gasification with CO2 capture, cogeneration, poly-generation, fertilizer and biochar production, and Fischer Tropsch are advanced and emerging techniques of gasification. Commercial barriers which affect the biofuel production process have been highlighted to provide an idea for strategy making. These barriers include biomass supply chain, low density of biomass, and moisture present in the environment.