Cow Dung Gasification Process for Hydrogen Production Using Water Vapor as Gasification Agent

Abstract

In recent years, with the development of hydrogen energy economy, there is an increasing demand for hydrogen in the market, and hydrogen production through biomass will provide an important way to supply clean, environmentally friendly and highly efficient hydrogen. In this study, cow dung was selected as the biomass source, and the efficiency of the biomass to hydrogen reaction was explored by coupling high temperature pyrolysis and water vapor gasification. The experimental conditions of gasification temperature, water mass fraction, heating rate and feed temperature were systematically studied and optimized to determine the optimal conditions for in situ hydrogen production by gasification of cow dung. The relationship of each factor to the yield of hydrogen production by gasification of cow dung semi-coke was investigated in order to elucidate the mechanism of the hydrogen production. The experiment determined the optimal operating parameters of in situ gasification: gasification temperature 1173 K, water mass fraction 80%, heating rate 10 K/min and feed temperature 673 K. The semi-coke treatment separated high temperature pyrolysis and water vapor gasification, and reduced the influence on gasification of volatile substances such as tar extracted from pyrolysis. The increase of semi-coke preparation temperature increases the content of coke, reduces the volatile matter and improves the yield of hydrogen; the small size of semi-coke particles and large specific surface area are beneficial to the gasification reaction.