Integrated Process Configuration for High-Temperature Sulfur Mitigation during Biomass Conversion via Indirect Gasification

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Sulfur present in biomass often causes catalyst deactivation during downstream operations after gasification. Early removal of sulfur from the syngas stream post-gasification is possible via process rearrangements and can be beneficial for maintaining a low-sulfur environment for all downstream operations. High-temperature sulfur sorbents have superior performance and capacity under drier syngas conditions. The reconfigured process discussed in this paper is comprised of indirect biomass gasification using dry recycled gas from downstream operations, which produces a drier syngas stream and, consequently, more-efficient sulfur removal at high temperatures using regenerable sorbents. A combination of experimental results from NREL’s fluidizable Ni-based reforming catalyst, fluidizable Mn-based sulfur sorbent, and process modeling information show that using a coupled process of dry gasification with high-temperature sulfur removal can improve the performance of Ni-based reforming catalysts significantly.