A techno-economic review of biomass gasification for production of chemicals

Gasification is a thermochemical process which can be used as a low-emission and highly efficient method to produce syngas and chemicals such as biomethanol and dimethyl ether (DME). In this paper, a review of technologies and methods for economic production of chemicals through gasification of biomass and other fuels has been carried out. A variety of techno-economic studies and analysis have been proposed in order to better understand the technical and economic assessments during the biomass gasification. Results showed that the methanol production cost for biomass (wood) is from 195 to 935 €/t, for waste residues is from 200 to 930 €/t, for coal is from 160 to 480 €/t, and for natural gas is from 90 to 290 €/t. It also concluded that fuel (wood) cost has positive linear relationship with ethanol production cost, meaning as the feedstock cost increases from 30 to 50 $/day-ton, the ethanol production cost enhances from 1.66 to 1.95 $/gal.     

Catalytic steam reforming of tar for enhancing hydrogen production from biomass gasification: a review

Presently, the global search for alternative renewable energy sources is rising due to the depletion of fossil fuel and rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Among alternatives, hydrogen (H₂) produced from biomass gasification is considered a green energy sector, due to its environmentally friendly, sustainable, and renewable characteristics. However, tar formation along with syngas is a severe impediment to biomass conversion efficiency, which results in process-related problems. Typically, tar consists of various hydrocarbons (HCs), which are also sources for syngas. Hence, catalytic steam reforming is an effective technique to address tar formation and improve H₂ production from biomass gasification. Of the various classes in existence, supported metal catalysts are considered the most promising. This paper focuses on the current researching status, prospects, and challenges of steam reforming of gasified biomass tar. Besides, it includes recent developments in tar compositional analysis, supported metal catalysts, along with the reactions and process conditions for catalytic steam reforming. Moreover, it discusses alternatives such as dry and autothermal reforming of tar.     

Experimental investigation on gasification characteristics of polycarbonate (PC) microplastics in supercritical water

In order to solve the problem of marine microplastics and realize the harmless resource utilization of plastics, the gasification experiments of polycarbonate (PC) microplastics were carried out in supercritical water and a novel seawater gasification of microplastic experiment was investigated. In this paper, the effects of different operating conditions (temperature, time, feedstock concentration, pressure) on gasification performance were discussed. The gasification kinetic of microplastics in supercritical water was calculated. The experimental results showed that the increase in gasification temperature and time enhanced the cracking reaction and free radical reaction of the microplastics to increase the gasification efficiency, while the reduction in feedstock concentration improved the gasification efficiency by increasing the gasification level of unit feedstock. The change in pressure had no significant effect on gasification due to the fact that the properties of the supercritical water were not significantly changed. It was found that the valuable results that all alkali metal salts in seawater promote hydrogen conversion, while in terms of carbon conversion, only KCl, CaCl₂, NaHCO₃ and seawater had a significant catalytic effect on the gasification. Seawater gasification of microplastics was a potential resource utilization method. Finally, it was considered that the PC plastic gasification conformed to the random nucleation and subsequent growth model (n = 3), and the reaction activation energy was 230.45 kJ/mol, which was smaller than that of traditional pyrolysis.     

Plasma gasification of the medical waste

In terms of infection control in hospitals, especially the Covid-19 pandemic that we are living in, it has revealed the necessity of proper disposal of medical waste. The increasing amount of medical waste with the pandemic is straining the capacity of incineration facilities or storage areas. Converting this waste to energy with gasification technologies instead of incineration is also important for sustainability. This study investigates the gasification characteristics of the medical waste in a novel updraft plasma gasifier with numerical simulations in the presence of the plasma reactions. Three different medical waste samples, chosen according to the carbon content and five different equivalence ratios (ER) ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 are considered in the simulations to compare the effects of different chemical compositions and waste feeding rates on hydrogen (H₂) content and syngas production. The outlet properties of a 10 kW microwave air plasma generator are used to define the plasma inlet in the numerical model and the air flow rate is held constant for all cases. Results showed that the maximum H₂ production can be obtained with ER = 0.1 for all waste samples.     

煤炭地下气化过程中温度场及其传热特征研究进展

煤炭地下气化(UCG)技术作为一种环境友好的采煤方法,可被用来开发深部煤层与矿井遗留的煤炭资源。当地下气化时,随着气化时间的推移,煤炭在煤层内部"燃烧"逐渐形成气化炉,炉内温度最高可达1 200℃。从UCG过程中的放热反应出发,综述了热量来源、温度场的变化及其传热特征等,总结了研究温度场的重要手段。分析认为,UCG是一个复杂的温热动态变化过程,在此过程中氧化还原反应、吸热和放热的可逆反应同时进行,导致了气化炉的温度场及其传热机制的复杂性。研究气化过程传热机制的方法主要有物理模拟、试验监测、理论计算和数值模拟4种,各自具有不同的适应性。其中,物理模拟的可操控性强,但是难以解决地层接触关系导致的接触热阻误差;试验监测能真实反映温度场等的变化情况,但是实际操作的经济性差;理论计算通过对气化过程的拆分,从理论角度定性定量了UCG的温度场特征,但理论计算难以考虑到温度渗流等对温度的影响;数值模拟借助计算机进行温度场的多场耦合,综合考虑了渗流、变形、温度等对传热的影响,但多场的物理耦合计算难度较大,且煤层及岩石的热物理性质随温度变化会产生较大的差异,导致数值建模的计算难度增加,制约了数值模拟方法的...     

Development of a new solar,gasification and fuel cell based integrated plant

Despite its shortcomings, fossil-based fuels are still utilized as the main energy source, accounting for about 80% of the world's total energy supply with about one-third of which comes from coal. However, conventional coal-fired power plants emit relatively higher amounts of greenhouse gases, and the derivatives of air pollutants, which necessitates the integration of environmentally benign technologies into the conventional power plants. In the current study, a H₂–CO synthesis gas fueled solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is integrated to the coal-fired combined cycle along with a concentrated solar energy system for the purpose of promoting the cleaner energy applications in the fossil fuel-based power plants. The underlying motivation of the present study is to propose a novel design for a conventional coal-fired combined cycle without altering its main infrastructure to make its environmentally hazardous nature more ecofriendly. The proposed SOFC integrated coal-fired combined cycle is modeled thermodynamically for different types of coals, namely pet coke, Powder River Basin (PRB) coal, lignite and anthracite using the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) and the Ebsilon software packages. The current results show that the designed hybrid energy system provide higher performance with higher energy and exergy efficiencies ranging from 70.6% to 72.7% energetically and from 35.5% to 43.8% exergetically. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced varying between 18.31 kg/s and 30.09 kg/s depending on the selected coal type, under the assumption of 10 kg per second fuel inlet.     

Bench-scale bubbling fluidized bed systems around the world - Bed agglomeration and collapse: A comprehensive review

Thermochemical conversion by gasification process is one of the most relevant technologies for energy recovery from solid fuel, with an energy conversion efficiency better than other alternatives like combustion and pyrolysis. Nevertheless, the most common technology used in the last decades for thermochemical conversion of solid fuel through gasification process, such as coal, agriculture residues or biomass residues are the fluidized bed or bubbling fluidized bed system. For these gasification technologies, an inert bed material is fed into reactor to improve the homogenization of the particles mixture and increase the heat transfer between solid fuel particles and the bed material. The fluidized bed reactors usually operate at isothermal bed temperatures in the range of 700–1000 °C, providing a suitable contact between solid and gas phases. In this way, chemical reactions with high conversion yield, as well as an intense circulation and mixing of the solid particles are encouraged. Moreover, a high gasification temperature favours carbon conversion efficiency, increasing the syngas production and energy performance of the gasifier. However, the risk of eutectic mixtures formation and its subsequent melting process are increased, and hence the probability of bed agglomeration and the system collapse could be increased, mainly when alkali and alkaline earth metals-rich biomasses are considered. Generally, bed agglomeration occurs when biomass-derived ash reacts with bed material, and the lower melting temperature of ash components promotes the formation of highly viscous layers, which encourages the progressive agglomerates creation, and consequently, the bed collapse and system de-fluidization. Taking into account the relevance of this topic to ensure the normal gasification process operating, this paper provides several aspects about bed agglomeration, mostly for biomass gasification systems. In this way, chemistry and mechanism of bed agglomeration, as well as, some methods for in-situ detection and prediction of the bed agglomeration phenomenon are reviewed and discussed.     

Molecular dynamic investigation on sulfur migration during hydrogen production by benzothiophene gasification in supercritical water

Benzothiophene (BT) is a key sulfur-containing intermediate product in the thermal conversion process of coal and heavy oil. The migration process of the sulfur element may affect the thermal utilization design of BT. In this paper, BT was used as a model compound to simulate the supercritical water gasification (SCWG) process by molecular dynamics with a reactive force field (ReaxFF) method, and the laws of hydrogen production and sulfur migration mechanisms were obtained. Increasing the molecule number of supercritical water (SCW) and increasing the reaction temperature can enhance the generation of hydrogen and promote the conversion of organic sulfur to inorganic sulfur. Water was the main source of H₂, and H₂S was the main gaseous sulfur-containing product. SCW had a certain degree of oxidation due to a large number of hydroxyl radicals, which could increase the valence of sulfur. The conversion process of BT in SCW was mainly divided into four stages, including thiophene ring-opening; sulfur separation or carbon chain broke with sulfur retention; carbon chain cleaved, and gas generation. The lumped kinetic parameters of the conversion of sulfur in BT to inorganic sulfur were calculated, and the activation energy was 369.98 kJ/mol, which was much lower than those under pyrolysis conditions. This article aims to clarify the synergistic characteristics of hydrogen production and sulfur migration in the SCWG process of BT from the molecular perspective, which is expected to provide a theoretical basis for pollutant directional removal during hydrogen production by sulfur-containing organic matters in SCW.     

Potential to retrofit existing small-scale gasifiers through steam gasification of biomass residues for hydrogen and biofuels production

This work investigates the opportunity of retrofitting existing small-scale gasifiers shifting from combined heat and power (CHP) to hydrogen and biofuels production, using steam and biomass residues (woodchips, vineyard pruning and bark). The experiments were carried out in a batch reactor at 700 °C and 800 °C and at different steam flow (SF) rates (0.04 g/min and 0.20 g/min). The composition of the producer gas is in the range of 46–70 % H₂, 9–29 % CO, 12–27 % CO₂, and 2–6 % CH₄. A producer gas specific production factor of approx. 10 NL_pg/g_char can be achieved when the lower SFs are used, which allows to provide 80 % of the hydrogen concentration required for biomethanation and MeOH synthesis. As for FT synthesis, an optimal H₂/CO ratio of approx. 2 can be achieved. The results of this work provide further evidence towards the feasibility of hydrogen and biofuels generation from residual biomass through steam gasification.