Abstract
Even though biomass gasification remains a promising technology regarding de-centralized sustainable energy supply, its main limitations, namely the issues of unsteady operation, tar formation in after-treatment systems, and consequential high maintenance requirements, have never been fully overcome. In order to tackle the latter two deficiencies and to increase the understanding of thermodynamic and thermokinetic producer gas phase phenomena within the after-treatment zones, a numerical system dynamic model has been created. Thereby, naphthalene has been chosen to represent the behavior of tars. The model has been validated against a wide variety of measured and simulated producer gas compositions. This work particularly focuses on the investigation and minimization of tar formation within after-treatment systems at low pressures and decreasing temperatures. Model-based analysis has led to a range of recommended measures, which could reduce the formation tendency and thus the condensation of tars in those zones. These recommendations are (i) to decrease gas residence time within pipes and producer gas purification devices, (ii) to increase temperatures in low-pressure zones, (iii) to increase hydrogen to carbon ratio, and (iv) to increase oxygen to carbon ratio in the producer gas. Furthermore, the numerical model has been included in the cloud-computing platform KaleidoSim. Thus, a wider range of process parameter combinations could be investigated in reasonable time. Consequentially, a simulation-based sensitivity analysis of producer gas composition with respect to process parameter changes was conducted and the validity basis of the above recommendations was enlarged.
Highlights
The method of biomass gasification via drying, pyrolysis, reduction, consequential partial oxidation to combustible producer gas, gas purification, feeding a gas motor, and producing electricity via a generator has been applied for decades
It is the authors’ opinion that, even though this is hard to achieve in actual gasification/aftertreatment systems, these findings constitute a gain in knowledge and understanding in themselves
The analysis shows that for the process parameter vector P0 output gas composition generally features the highest relative thermodynamic sensitivity with respect to changes in RO/C and RH/C
Summary
The method of biomass gasification via drying, pyrolysis, reduction, consequential partial oxidation to combustible producer gas, gas purification, feeding a gas motor, and producing electricity via a generator has been applied for decades. The main limitations of wood gasification systems, namely the issue of unsteady operation, excessive tar formation and condensation within after-treatment systems and engines, and consequential high maintenance requirements, have never been fully overcome. In this context, Groenier et al [5] report that an exemplary 50 kW biomass gasification system requires not less than 30-min maintenance time per day. Bioref. (2021) 11:39–56 the syngas is one of the main technology barriers to the development of gasification
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