Steam gasification reactivity of char from rapid pyrolysis of bio-oil/char slurry

A slurry of bio-oil and char originating from wood pyrolysis is a promising gasifier feed-stock because of its high energy density. When such a slurry is injected into a high temperature gasifier it undergoes a rapid pyrolysis yielding a char which then reacts with steam. The char produced by pyrolysis of an 80 wt% bio-oil/20 wt% char mixture at heating rates of 100-10,000 °C/s was subjected to steam gasification in a thermogravimetric analyzer. The original wood char from the bio-oil production was also tested. Gasification was conducted with 10-50 mol% steam at temperatures from 800 to 1200 °C. Reactivity of the slurry chars increased with pyrolysis heating rate, but was lower than that of the original chars. Kinetic parameters were established for a power-law rate model of the steam-char reaction, and compared to values from the literature. At temperatures over 1000 °C, the gasification rates appeared to be affected by diffusional resistance.     

The effect of coal particle size on pyrolysis and steam gasification

For future power generation from coal, one preferred option in the UK is the air-blown gasification cycle (ABGC). In this system coal particles sized up to 3 mm, perhaps up to 6 mm in a commercial plant, are pyrolysed and then gasified in air/steam in a spouted bed reactor. As this range of coal particle sizes is large it is of interest to investigate the importance of particle size for those two processes. In particular the relation between the coal and the char particle size distribution was investigated to assess the error involved in assuming the coal size distribution at the on-set of gasification. Different coal size fractions underwent different changes on pyrolysis. Smaller coal particles were more likely to produce char particles larger than themselves, larger coal particles had a greater tendency to fragment. However, for the sizes investigated in this study ranging from 0.5 to 2.8 mm, the pyrolysis and gasification behaviour was found not to vary significantly with particle size. The coal size fractions showed similar char yields, irrespective of the different char size distributions resulting from pyrolysis. Testing the reactivity of the chars in air and CO₂ did not reveal significant differences between size fractions of the char, nor did partial gasification in steam in the spouted bed reactor. From the work undertaken, it can be concluded that pyrolysis and gasification within the range of particle sizes investigated are relatively insensitive to particle size.     

Roles of inherent metallic species in secondary reactions of tar and char during rapid pyrolysis of brown coals in a drop-tube reactor

Two pairs of raw and acid-washed coal samples were prepared from Yallourn and Loy Yang brown coals, and subjected to rapid pyrolysis in a drop-tube reactor at 1073-1173 K in a stream of N₂ or H₂O/N₂ mixture. Examinations were made on the roles of the inherent metallic species in the secondary reactions of nascent tar and char that were formed by the intraparticle primary reactions. The experimental results revealed that the inherent metallic species were essential for vary rapid steam reforming/gasification of the nascent tar/char and simultaneous suppression of soot formation. In the absence of the metallic species, the soot formation from the tar accounted as much as 15-19 and 6-13% of the carbon in coal in N₂ and H₂O/N₂, respectively. The metallic species reduced the yield of soot to 6-8% in N₂ by enhancing the reforming of tar by H₂O generated from the pyrolysis of coal. In the H₂O/N₂ stream, instead of soot formation, a net gasification conversion up to 17% within 4.3 s was observed in the presence of the metallic species as a result of catalytic gasification of the nascent char. Moreover, the metallic species catalyzed the steam reforming of the nascent tar, giving its conversion up to 99%. Over the range of the conditions employed, a one-to-one stoichiometry was established between the steam consumption and the yield of carbon oxides formed by the steam reforming/gasification and water-gas-shift reaction.     

Catalytic performance of Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 modified with noble metals in steam gasification of biomass

In the steam gasification of biomass, the additive effect of noble metals such as Pt, Pd, Rh and Ru to the Ni/CeO₂/Al₂O₃ catalyst was investigated. Among these noble metals, the addition of Pt was most effective even when the loading amount of added Pt was as small as 0.01 wt.%. In addition, the catalyst characterization suggests the formation of the Pt–Ni alloy over the Pt/Ni/CeO₂/Al₂O₃.     

Development of Ni catalysts for tar removal by steam gasification of biomass

Catalytic performance of Ni/CeO₂/Al₂O₃ catalysts prepared by a co-impregnation and a sequential impregnation method in steam gasification of real biomass (cedar wood) was investigated. Especially, Ni/CeO₂/Al₂O₃ catalysts prepared by the co-impregnation method exhibited higher performance than Ni/Al₂O₃ and Ni/CeO₂/Al₂O₃ prepared by the sequential impregnation method, and the catalysts gave lower yields of coke and tar, and higher yields of gaseous products. The Ni/CeO₂/Al₂O₃ catalysts were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, temperature-programmed reduction with H₂, transmission electron microscopy and extended X-ray absorption fine structure, and the results suggested that the interaction between Ni and CeO₂ became stronger by the co-impregnation method than that by sequential method. Judging from both results of catalytic performance and catalyst characterization, it is found that the intimate interaction between Ni and CeO₂ can play very important role on the steam gasification of biomass.     

Formation of N-containing gas-phase species from char gasification in steam

The formation of N-containing products during char-steam gasification has been investigated in a laboratory scale fixed bed reactor. Experiments were conducted at 1000 °C, 0.1-1.0 MPa, and 6-46% of H₂O in He base flow. Two very different coal chars, which were prepared from the rapid heating of Australian bituminous and sub-bituminous coals, were studied. The nitrogen-containing products released during the gasification were measured using an FTIR spectrometer (NH₃, HCN and HNCO) and gas chromatography (N₂). The major N-containing products formed during char-steam gasification are NH₃, HCN and N₂. Reactions of HCN in the same reactor were also studied; these experiments were conducted with HCN alone, HCN/steam, and HCN/steam/char. The results are consistent with a mechanism in which HCN is the primary N-containing product of the char-steam reaction, and the additional products result from further reactions of HCN either in the gas phase or promoted by the surface of the reactor or the char. Increasing concentrations of steam significantly influence the distribution of char-N to N-containing gas-phase products, resulting in the increase of NH₃ at the expense of N₂. Some differences in char behaviour are also observed, particularly on the distribution of N-containing products at 0.1 MPa total pressure.     

The physical character of coal char formed during rapid pyrolysis at high pressure

Rapid pyrolysis was conducted in a drop tube reactor using seven coals under various operating conditions. In addition to dense char, porous chars (network char and cenospheric char) were formed by the rapid pyrolysis under certain conditions. Porous char was mainly composed of film-like carbon and skeleton carbon. The pyrolyzed coal char particles were characterized in detail. Morphology and bulk density of porous char were quite different from the dense char formed under the same conditions, but elemental composition and BET surface area were similar to each other. CO₂ gasification reactivity of porous char was lower than dense char in the later gasification stage, and this was ascribed to the low reactivity of skeleton carbon.     

Effects of controlling parameters on production of hydrogen by catalytic steam gasification of biomass at low temperatures

Low temperature catalytic steam gasification of biomass is being investigated around the world as an environmentally friendly alternative to the existing techniques for hydrogen production. The aim of the present investigation was to gain a fundamental understanding about the catalytic steam gasification of some species under low temperature conditions. The research, in particular, focused on the role and relative importance of controlling parameters, such as reaction temperature and the heating rate on the composition of the products. It was found that higher temperatures and steam flow rates increased the gas yield. A relatively low reaction temperature of 600 °C and a high steam content of about 90% showed the strongest tendency for maximising the hydrogen production.     

The study of reactions influencing the biomass steam gasification process☆

Steam gasification studies were carried out in an atmospheric fluidised bed. The gasifier was operated over a temperature range of 700-900 °C whilst varying a steam/biomass ratio from 0.4 to 0.85 w/w. Three types of forestry biomass were studied: Pinus pinaster (softwood), Eucalyptus globulus and holm-oak (hardwood). The energy conversion, gas composition, higher heating value and gas yields were determined and correlated with temperature, steam/biomass ratio, and species of biomass used. The results obtained seemed to suggest that the operating conditions were optimised for a gasification temperature around 830 °C and a steam/biomass ratio of 0.6-0.7 w/w, because a gas richer in hydrogen and poorer in hydrocarbons and tars was produced. These conditions also favoured greater energy and carbon conversions, as well the gas yield. The main objective of the present work was to determine what reactions were dominant within the operation limits of experimental parameters studied and what was the effect of biomass type on the gasification process. As biomass wastes usually have a problem of availability because of seasonal variations, this work analysed the possibility of replacing one biomass species by another, without altering the gas quality obtained.     

Decomposition and gasification of pyrolysis volatiles from pine wood through a bed of hot char

Pine wood was pyrolyzed in a fixed bed reactor at a heating rate of 10 °C and a final temperature of 700 °C, and the resultant volatiles were allowed to be secondarily cracked through a tubular reactor in a temperature range of 500-700 °C with and without packing a bed of char. The thermal effect and the catalytic effect of char on the cracking of tar were investigated. An attempt was made to deconvolute the intermingled contributions of the char-catalyzed tar cracking and the char gasification to the yields of gaseous and liquid products. It was found that the wood char (charcoal) was catalytically active for the tar cracking at 500-600 °C, while at 650-700 °C, the thermal effect became a dominant mode of the tar cracking. Above 600 °C, the autogenerated steam gasified the charcoal, resulting in a marked increase in the yield of gaseous product and a significant change in the gas composition. An anthracite char (A-char), a bituminous coal char (B-char), a lignite char (L-char) and graphite also behaved with catalytic activities towards the tar cracking at lower temperature, but only L-char showed reactivity for gasification at higher temperature.     

Effect of pyrolysis pressure and heating rate on radiata pine char structure and apparent gasification reactivity

The knowledge of biomass char gasification kinetics has considerable importance in the design of advanced biomass gasifiers, some of which operate at high pressure. The char gasification kinetics themselves are influenced by char structure. In this study, the effects of pyrolysis pressure and heating rate on the char structure were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, digital cinematography, and surface area analysis. Char samples were prepared at pressures between 1 and 20 bar, temperatures ranging from 800 to 1000 °C, and heating rates between 20 and 500 °C/s. Our results indicate that pyrolysis conditions have a notable impact on the biomass char morphology. Pyrolysis pressure, in particular, was found to influence the size and the shape of char particles while high heating rates led to plastic deformation of particles (i.e. melting) resulting in smooth surfaces and large cavities. The global gasification reactivities of char samples were also determined using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) technique. Char reactivities were found to increase with increasing pyrolysis heating rates and decreasing pyrolysis pressure.     

Reactivity and structural change of coal char during steam gasification

This study is intended to clarify the relationship among the reactivity of coal char with steam, structural change in residual carbon, and ash behavior. Steam gasification of various coal chars and demineralized chars was carried out in a fixed-bed reactor. After gasification, the reacted char was analyzed using laser raman spectroscope (LRS), and scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope (SEM/EDX) mapping. Results of SEM images and EDX-mappings revealed that novel parallel analysis of cross correlation between EDX-mapping and LRS-mapping was found to be very effective for the comprehensive evaluation of ash behavior and carbonaceous structure. As the gasification reaction proceeds, the reactivity of the char was varied; existence of Si and Al seemed to suffocate the char reactivity.     

Effect of pyrolysis temperature on the char micro-structure and reactivity of NO reduction

A phenol-formaldehyde resin (PFR) and a bituminous coal (SH) were pyrolyzed at various temperatures. The structure and the char-NO reactivity were analyzed in order to examine the effect of pyrolysis temperature on the micro-structure of the resulting char and further on the reactivity towards NO. Micro-structure of the char samples was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. It was indicated that the micro-structure of PFR char and coal char experienced remarkable changes during pyrolysis, which resulted in the decrease of phenolic OH, aromatic hydrogen and more ordered structure. The pyrolysis temperature showed a weak impact on the reactivity of PFR char but comparatively remarkable impact on that of coal char at lower reaction temperature. Mineral matter in coal char presented a weak effect on the reactivity. This paper was presented at the 7 ^th China-Korea Workshop on Clean Energy Technology held at Taiyuan, China, June 26–28, 2008.     

Carbon foam prepared by pyrolysis of olive stones under steam

The experimental conditions for the pyrolysis of olive stones to produce a swelling of the particle and eventually the formation of carbon foam are described and discussed. The greatest expansion of the material occurred when 200-300 g of precursor, in the presence of steam at a pressure of 1 MPa, is introduced into a 1000 ml stainless steel reactor placed inside a sand-bath furnace previously heated to 500 °C. In a few minutes the pyrolysis begins and this exothermic process leads to a more rapid pyrolysis. A relationship between heating rate and degree of foaming for the resulting char is observed. The carbon foam obtained exhibits a low density, 0.2-0.3 g/cm³, due to the presence of meso and macropores, mainly those of size larger than 1 μm. A mechanism is suggested to explain the formation of the foam as a combination of a softening of the precursor and a fragmentation of the biopolymers to produce a “melt”. A fast increase in temperature reduces the viscosity of the “melt” and facilitates the fragmentation to volatiles, responsible for the swelling of the particles and the formation of the foam.     

Influences of minerals transformation on the reactivity of high temperature char gasification

Two Chinese coals were used in this study and coal chars were prepared at different temperatures. High temperature gasification of coal chars with CO₂ was investigated in a bench scale fixed-bed reactor and the transformations of minerals from these two coals were also studied from 1100 to 1500 °C. Mineral matters produced at different temperature and ash generated after gasification were collected and analyzed by XRD and FTIR. It was found that the iron oxides were only catalytic mineral matters existing at high temperature. And gasification behaviors above ash melting temperature were different for different mineral composition, especially the content and form of iron oxide, which not only accelerates the gasification reaction, but also reduces the influence caused by melting minerals.     

Effect of cellulose, lignin, alkali and alkaline earth metallic species on biomass pyrolysis and gasification

Fundamental pyrolysis/gasification characteristics of natural biomass and acid-washed biomass without alkali and alkaline earth metals (AAEM) were investigated by a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and a fixed-bed reactor. In these experiments, six types of biomass were used and the contents of cellulose, lignin and AAEM species in the biomass were measured. It was observed that the characteristic of biomass pyrolysis and gasification was dependent on its components and AAEM species on the basis of TGA experiments. During biomass pyrolysis, the tar and gas yields increased with the growth of cellulose content, but the char yield decreased. There were two reactions indicating two major decomposition mechanisms. The first stage of decomposition showed rapid mass decrease due to the volatilization of cellulose, while the second stage became slow attributed to the lignin decomposition. The higher the cellulose content, the faster the pyrolysis rate. In contrast, the pyrolysis rate of biomass with higher lignin content became slower. In addition, the rises of cellulose content elevated the peak temperature of gasification and prolonged the gasification time. Meanwhile, the effect of AAEM species on gasification behavior was studied by comparing unwashed and acid-washed biomass. AAEM species increased the peak gasification value, whereas decreased initial gasification temperature. It revealed that the activity of biomass gasification was attributed to the interaction between AAEM-cellulose/lignin.     

Kinetic studies of char gasification by steam and CO2 in the presence of H2 and CO

Char-CO₂ gasification reactions in the presence of CO and char-steam gasification reactions in the presence of H₂ were studied at the atmospheric condition using a thermogravimetric apparatus (TGA) at various reactant partial pressures and within a temperature range of 1123 K-1223 K. The char was prepared from a lignite coal. The partial pressure of H₂ and CO varied from 0.05 to 0.3 atm. The experimental results showed that Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) kinetic equation was applicable to describe the inhibition effects of CO and H₂. The kinetic parameters in L-H equations were obtained. Interactions of char gasification by steam and CO₂ in the presence of H₂ and CO were discussed. It was found that the kinetic parameters determined from pure or binary gas mixtures can be used to predict multi-component gasification rates. The results confirmed that the char-steam and char-CO₂ reactions proceed on separate active sites rather than common active sites.     

Low-temperature gasification of a woody biomass under a nickel-loaded brown coal char

Catalytic gasification of a woody biomass, Japanese cypress, was investigated under a prepared nickel-loaded brown coal (LY-Ni) char in a two-stage fixed-bed reactor. The nickel-loaded brown coal was prepared by ion-exchange method with a nickel loading rate of 8.3 wt.%. Nickel species dispersed well in the brown coal, and the LY-Ni char via devolatilization at 600 °C showed a great porous property with a specific surface area of 382 m² g^− 1.The LY-Ni char was confirmed to be quite active for the Japanese cypress volatiles gasification at a relatively low-temperature range from 450 to 650 °C. For example, at 550 °C, 16.6 times hydrogen gas and 6.3 times total gases were yielded from the catalytic steam gasification of Japanese cypress volatiles under the LY-Ni char, compared with the case of non-catalyst. The biomass tar decomposition showed a dependence on catalyst temperatures. When the catalyst temperature was higher than 500 °C, Japanese cypress tar converted much efficiently, high gas yields and high carbon balances were obtained.     

褐煤焦中的矿物质对气化动力学的影响

利用热重分析仪研究了水蒸气气氛下霍林河褐煤焦和脱灰褐煤焦的气化动力学特性,并考察了脱灰前后褐煤焦孔结构的变化。结果表明:褐煤原焦气化反应速率在反应初始阶段(转化率30%)高于脱灰褐煤焦,但在反应后期低于脱灰焦,这是因为煤焦中灰分的脱除一方面去除了矿物质的催化作用,另一方面增大了煤焦的孔径,因而减小了气化剂的扩散阻力。灰层扩散控制的缩核模型可以描述褐煤焦水蒸气气化过程,而脱灰后褐煤焦水蒸气气化过程用均相模型可以很好地表示。