Insights of biomass gasification combined with CO2 absorption enhanced reforming in an 8 MWth dual fluidized bed

Abstract

Biomass gasification combined with CO2 absorption enhanced reforming (AER) emerges as a clean and efficient technology for H2 enrichment and CO2 removal, yet an in-depth understanding of in-furnace phenomena and fundamental physics is still lacking. In this work, the AER gasification in an industrial-scale DFB reactor is numerically studied by integrating the multi-phase particle-in-cell (MP-PIC) framework with complex reaction kinetics regarding gasification, carbonation, and calcination. After model validations, the effects of several key operating parameters on the AER gasification performance are studied. As compared with conventional gasification, AER gasification promotes H2 concentration by 15.3% but reduces CO2 concentration by 55.8%, leading to syngas quality improvement. Moreover, AER gasification performance in the DFB reactor can be improved by: (i) increasing gasification temperature; (ii) increasing steam-to-biomass ratio; (iii) adjusting bed material and (iv) decreasing particle size. The present work provides a cost-effective tool to study the physical-thermal-chemical behaviors of AER gasification in industrial-scale DFB reactors.