Hydrogen and syngas yield from residual branches of oil palm tree using steam gasification

Wastes produced during oil palm production from agro-industries have great potential as a source of renewable energy in agriculturally rich countries, such as Thailand and Malaysia. Clean chemical energy recovery from oil palm residual branches via steam gasification is investigated here. A semi-batch reactor was used to investigate the gasification of palm trunk wastes at different reactor temperatures in the range of 600 to 1000 °C. The steam flow rate was fixed at 3.10 g/min. Characteristics and overall yield of syngas properties are presented and discussed. Results show that gasification temperature slightly affects the overall syngas yield. However, the chemical composition of the syngas varied tremendously with the reactor temperature. Consequently, the syngas heating value and ratio of energy yield to energy consumed were found to be strongly dependent on the reactor temperature. Both the heating value and energy yield ratio increased with increase in reactor temperature. Gasification duration and the steam to solid fuel ratio indicate that reaction rate becomes progressively slower at reactor temperatures of less than 700 °C. The results reveal that steam gasification of oil palm residues should not be carried out at reactor temperatures lower than 700 °C, since a large amount of steam is consumed per unit mass of the sample in order to gasify the residual char.     

Characteristic of hydrogen and syngas evolution from gasification and pyrolysis of rubber

The characteristics of syngas evolution during pyrolysis and gasification of waste rubber have been investigated. A semi-batch reactor was used for the thermal decomposition of the material under various conditions of pyrolysis and high temperature steam gasification. The results are reported at two different reactor temperatures of 800 and 900 °C and at constant steam gasifying agent flow rate of 7.0 g/min and a fixed sample mass. The characteristics of syngas were evaluated in terms of syngas flow rate, hydrogen flow rate, syngas yield, hydrogen yield and energy yield. Gasification resulted in 500% increase in hydrogen yield as compared to pyrolysis at 800 °C. However, at 900 °C the increase in hydrogen was more than 700% as compared to pyrolysis. For pyrolysis conditions, increase in reactor temperature from 800 to 900 °C resulted in 64% increase in hydrogen yield while for gasification conditions a 124% increase in hydrogen yield was obtained. Results of syngas yield, hydrogen yield and energy yield from the rubber sample are evaluated with that obtained from woody biomass samples, namely hard wood and wood chips. Rubber gasification yielded more energy at the 900 °C as compared to biomass feedstock samples. However, less syngas and less hydrogen were obtained from rubber than the biomass samples at both the temperatures reported here.     

Hydrogen production from polystyrene pyrolysis and gasification: Characteristics and kinetics

Polystyrene (PS) pyrolysis and gasification have been examined in a semi-batch reactor at temperatures of 700, 800 and 900 °C. Characteristic differences between pyrolysis and gasification of polystyrene (PS) have been evaluated with specific performance focus on the evolution of syngas flow rate, evolution of hydrogen flow rate, evolution of output power, syngas yield, hydrogen yield, energy yield, apparent thermal efficiency and syngas quality. Behavior of PS under either pyrolysis or gasification processes is compared to that of char based sample, such as paper and cardboard. In contrast to char based materials, PS gasification yielded less syngas, hydrogen and energy than pyrolysis at 700 °C. However, the gasification of PS yielded more syngas, hydrogen and energy than pyrolysis at 900 °C temperature. Gasification of PS is affected by reactor temperature more than PS pyrolysis. Syngas, hydrogen and energy yield increased exponentially with temperature in case of gasification. However, syngas and energy yield increased linearly with temperature having rather a mild slope in the case of pyrolysis. Pyrolysis resulted in higher syngas quality at all temperatures. Kinetics of hydrogen evolution from the PS pyrolysis is introduced. The Coats and Redfern method was used to determine the kinetic parameters, activation energy (E_act), pre-exponential factor (A) and reaction order (n). The model used is the nth order chemical reaction model. Kinetic parameters have been determined for three slow heating rates, namely 8, 10 and 12 °C/min. The average values obtained from the three heating rate experiments were used to compare the model with the experimental data.     

Characteristics of syngas from co-gasification of polyethylene and woodchips

Gasification of polyethylene (PE) and woodchips (WC) mixtures have been investigated in a semi-batch reactor, using high temperature steam as the gasifying agent. The reactor temperature was maintained at 900 °C. The ratio of PE–WC was varied from 0% to 100% in 20% intervals. Characteristics of syngas were evaluated based on the yield of syngas, hydrogen, energy, ethylene, total hydrocarbons and apparent thermal efficiency of the process. Results show that properties of syngas evolved during gasification of PE–WC blends cannot be determined from the weighted average syngas properties obtained from separate gasification of WC and PE. Superior results in terms of syngas yield, hydrogen yield, total hydrocarbons yield, energy yield and apparent thermal efficiency from PE–WC blends were obtained as compared to expected weighed average yields from gasification of individual components. Results confirm synergistic interaction between PE and WC during high temperature steam gasification of these mixtures. These results also provide the importance of mixing two or more compounds on the performance of stream gasification of wastes.     

Pyrolysis and gasification of food waste: Syngas characteristics and char gasification kinetics

Characteristics of syngas from the pyrolysis and gasification of food waste has been investigated. Characteristic differences in syngas properties and overall yields from pyrolysis and gasification were determined at two distinct high temperatures of 800 and 900 °C. Pyrolysis and gasification behavior were evaluated in terms of syngas flow rate, hydrogen flow rate, output power, total syngas yield, total hydrogen yield, total energy yield, and apparent thermal efficiency. Gasification was more beneficial than pyrolysis based on investigated criteria, but longer time was needed to finish the gasification process. Longer time of gasification is attributed to slow reactions between the residual char and gasifying agent. Consequently, the char gasification kinetics was investigated. Inorganic constituents of food char were found to have a catalytic effect. Char reactivity increased with increased degree of conversion. In the conversion range from 0.1 to 0.9 the increase in reactivity was accompanied by an increase in pre-exponential factor, which suggested an increase in gasifying agent adsorption rate to char surface. However, in the conversion range from 0.93 to 0.98 the increase in reactivity was accompanied by a decrease in activation energy. A compensation effect was observed in this range of conversion of 0.93–0.98.     

Hydrogen and syngas production from sewage sludge via steam gasification

High temperature steam gasification is an attractive alternative technology which can allow one to obtain high percentage of hydrogen in the syngas from low-grade fuels. Gasification is considered a clean technology for energy conversion without environmental impact using biomass and solid wastes as feedstock. Sewage sludge is considered a renewable fuel because it is sustainable and has good potential for energy recovery. In this investigation, sewage sludge samples were gasified at various temperatures to determine the evolutionary behavior of syngas characteristics and other properties of the syngas produced. The syngas characteristics were evaluated in terms of syngas yield, hydrogen production, syngas chemical analysis, and efficiency of energy conversion. In addition to gasification experiments, pyrolysis experiments were conducted for evaluating the performance of gasification over pyrolysis. The increase in reactor temperature resulted in increased generation of hydrogen. Hydrogen yield at 1000 °C was found to be 0.076 g_gas g_sample⁻¹. Steam as the gasifying agent increased the hydrogen yield three times as compared to air gasification. Sewage sludge gasification results were compared with other samples, such as, paper, food wastes and plastics. The time duration for sewage sludge gasification was longer as compared to other samples. On the other hand sewage sludge yielded more hydrogen than that from paper and food wastes.     

Characteristics of cardboard and paper gasification with CO2

Evolutionary behavior of syngas chemical composition and yield have been examined for paper and cardboard at three different temperatures of 800, 900 and 1000 °C using CO₂ as the gasifying agent at constant flow rate. Specifically the evolution of syngas chemical composition with time has been investigated. Pyrolysis of the sample was dominant at the beginning of the gasification process as observed from the high initial devolatilization of the sample followed by char gasification of material to form syngas for a long period of time. Results provided the role of gasification temperature on kinetics of the CO₂ gasification process. Increase in gasification temperature provided increased conversion of the sample material to syngas. Thus the sample conversion to syngas was low at the low temperature of 800 °C while at elevated temperatures of 900 and 1000 °C substantial enhancement of the kinetics process occurred. The evolution of extensive reaction rate of carbon-monoxide was calculated. Results show that increase in temperature increased the extensive reaction rate of carbon-monoxide. The global behavior of syngas chemical composition examined at three different temperatures revealed a peak in concentration of H₂ to exhibit after few minutes into the gasification that changed with gasification temperature. At 800 °C gasification temperature peak in H₂ was displayed at 3 min into gasification while it decreased to only 2 min, approximately, at gasification temperatures of 900 and 1000 °C. The effect of reactor temperature on CO mole fraction has also been examined. Increase in the gasification temperature enhances the mole fraction of CO yields. This is attributed to the increase in forward reaction rate of the Boudouard reaction (C+CO₂2CO). The results show important role of CO₂ gas for the gasification of wastes and low grade fuels to clean syngas.     

Hydrogen-rich gas from catalytic steam gasification of municipal solid waste (MSW): Influence of catalyst and temperature on yield and product composition

In the present study the catalytic steam gasification of MSW to produce hydrogen-rich gas or syngas (H₂ + CO) with calcined dolomite as a catalyst in a bench-scale downstream fixed bed reactor was investigated. The influence of the catalyst and reactor temperature on yield and product composition was studied at the temperature range of 750–950 °C, with a steam to MSW ratio of 0.77, for weight hourly space velocity of 1.29 h⁻¹. Over the ranges of experimental conditions examined, calcined dolomite revealed better catalytic performance, at the presence of steam, tar was completely decomposed as temperature increases from 850 to 950 °C. Higher temperature resulted in more H₂ and CO production, higher carbon conversion efficiency and dry gas yield. The highest H₂ content of 53.29 mol%, and the highest H₂ yield of 38.60 mol H₂/kg MSW were observed at the highest temperature level of 950 °C, while, the maximum H₂ yield potential reached 70.14 mol H₂/kg dry MSW at 900 °C. Syngas produced by catalytic steam gasification of MSW varied in the range of 36.35–70.21 mol%. The char had a highest ash content of 84.01% at 950 °C, and negligible hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur contents.     

Hydrogen-rich gas from catalytic steam gasification of biomass in a fixed bed reactor: Influence of particle size on gasification performance

The catalytic steam gasification of biomass was carried out in a lab-scale fixed bed reactor in order to evaluate the effects of particle size at different bed temperatures on the gasification performance. The bed temperature was varied from 600 to 900 °C and the biomass was separated into five different size fractions (below 0.075 mm, 0.075–0.15 mm, 0.15–0.3 mm, 0.3–0.6 mm and 0.6–1.2 mm). The results show that with decreasing particle size, the dry gas yield, carbon conversion efficiency and H₂ yield increased, and the content of char and tar decreased. And the differences due to particle sizes in gasification performance practically disappear as the higher temperature bound is approached. Hydrogen and carbon monoxide contents in the produced gas increase with decreasing particle size at 900 °C, reaching to 51.2% and 22.4%, respectively.     

Investigation of hydrogen production using wood pellets gasification with steam at high temperature over 800 °C to 1435 °C

A fixed-bed gasifier was developed to study the effects of steam flow rate and temperature on the hydrogen production during biomass gasification at high temperature over 800 °C to 1435 °C. An optimum steam flow rate for peak of hydrogen yield was found. As temperature increases, amount of hydrogen increases first, subsequently decreases and then increases again with a maximum peak of hydrogen yield at 917 °C. In the temperatures of 1018 °C through 1435 °C post the peak hydrogen production increases with temperature. The maximum volume fraction of hydrogen and hydrogen production ratio are 60% and 76%, respectively. Chemical equilibrium calculation was also done using ASPEN software, which demonstrates that the more the steam flow rate, the lower the temperature for maximum hydrogen yield; the higher the temperature, the lower the effect of steam flow rate. The results are expected to develop high temperature gasification technology.     

High temperature steam gasification of wastewater sludge

High temperature steam gasification is one of the most promising, viable, effective and efficient technology for clean conversion of wastes to energy with minimal or negligible environmental impact. Gasification can add value by transforming the waste to low or medium heating value fuel which can be used as a source of clean energy or co-fired with other fuels in current power systems. Wastewater sludge is a good source of sustainable fuel after fuel reforming with steam gasification. The use of steam is shown to provide value added characteristics to the sewage sludge with increased hydrogen content as well total energy. Results obtained on the syngas properties from sewage sludge are presented here at various steam to carbon ratios at a reactor temperature of 1173 K. Effect of steam to carbon ratio on syngas properties are evaluated with specific focus on the amounts of syngas yield, syngas composition, hydrogen yield, energy yield, and apparent thermal efficiency. The apparent thermal efficiency is similar to cold gas efficiency used in industry and was determined from the ratio of energy in syngas to energy in the solid sewage sludge feedstock. A laboratory scale semi-batch type gasifier was used to determine the evolutionary behavior of the syngas properties using calibrated experiments and diagnostic facilities. Results showed an optimum steam to carbon ratio of 5.62 for the range of conditions examined here for syngas yield, hydrogen yield, energy yield and energy ratio of syngas to sewage sludge fuel. The results show that steam gasification provided 25% increase in energy yield as compared to pyrolysis at the same temperature.     

Syngas production from catalytic gasification of waste polyethylene: Influence of temperature on gas yield and composition

The catalytic steam gasification of waste polyethylene (PE) from municipal solid waste (MSW) to produce syngas (H₂ + CO) with NiO/γ-Al₂O₃ as catalyst in a bench-scale downstream fixed bed reactor was investigated. The influence of the reactor temperature on the gas yield, gas composition, steam decomposition, low heating value (LHV), cold gas efficiency and carbon conversion efficiency was investigated at the temperature range of 700–900 °C, with a steam to waste polyethylene ratio of 1.33. Over the ranges of experimental conditions examined, NiO/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst revealed better catalytic performance as a view of increasing product gas yield and of decreasing char and liquid yields in the presence of steam. Higher temperature resulted in more H₂ and CO production, higher carbon conversion efficiency and product gas yield. The highest syngas (H₂ + CO) content of 64.35 mol%, the highest H₂ content of 36.98 mol%, and the highest CO content of 27.37 mol%, were achieved at the highest temperature level of 900 °C. Syngas produced with a H₂/CO molar ratio in the range of 0.83–1.35, was highly desirable as feedstock for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis for the production of transportation fuels.     

Hydrogen from Various Biomass Species via Pyrolysis and Steam Gasification Processes

The aim of this study was to assess the scientific and engineering advancements of producing hydrogen from biomass via two thermochemical processes: (a) conventional pyrolysis followed by reforming of the carbohydrate fraction of the bio-oil and (b) gasification followed by reforming of the syngas (H₂ + CO). The yield from steam gasification increases with increasing water-to-sample ratio. The yields of hydrogen from the pyrolysis and the steam gasification increase with increasing of temperature. In general, the gasification temperature is higher than that of pyrolysis and the yield of hydrogen from the gasification is higher than that of the pyrolysis. The highest yields (% dry and ash free basis) were obtained from the pyrolysis (46%) and steam gasification (55%) of wheat straw while the lowest yields from olive waste. The yield of hydrogen from supercritical water extraction was considerably high (49%) at lower temperatures. The pyrolysis was carried out at the moderate temperatures and steam gasification at the highest temperatures. This study demonstrates that hydrogen can be produced economically from biomass. The pyrolysis-based technology, in particular, because it has coproduct opportunities, has the most favorable economics.     

Low temperature steam gasification to produce hydrogen rich gas from kitchen food waste: Influence of steam flow rate and temperature

Large amount of food waste is generated from Indian kitchens and disposing off such a large amount possesses a great challenge in terms of environmental degradation and viable food waste processing technology. In this work, steam gasification was tested as an alternative viable technology to process the kitchen food waste. Preliminary study was carried out at low temperature on steam gasification in a fixed bed reactor to study the influence of steam flow rate (SFR) and temperature on the syngas yield, syngas composition, hydrogen yield. Performance parameters such as carbon conversion efficiency (CCE), and apparent thermal efficiency (ATE) are also calculated. Steam flow rates are varied from 0.125 mL/min to 0.75 mL/min and the temperatures are varied from 700 °C to 800 °C. The highest hydrogen yield is obtained at 0.5 mL/min SFR and 800 °C temperature and its highest value is 1.2 m³/kg. The highest value of performance parameters, CCE and ATE are found to be 63% and 1.8.     

Distribution of Nitrogen Species During Vitrinite Pyrolysis and Gasification

The formation of HCN and NH₃ during pyrolysis in Ar and gasification in CO₂ and steam/Ar was investigated. Vitrinites were separated and purified from different rank coal from lignite to anthracite. Pyrolysis and gasification were carried out in the drop-tube/fixed-bed reactor at temperatures of 600–900°C. Results showed that with increase of reaction temperature the yield of HCN increased significantly during pyrolysis and gasification. Decrease of coal rank also increased the yield of HCN. Vitrinite from lower rank of coal with high volatile content released more HCN. The yield of NH₃ was the highest at 800°C during pyrolysis and gasification. And the yield of NH₃ from gasification in steam/Ar was far higher than that from gasification in CO₂, where the hydrogen radicals play a key role. Nitrogen retained in char was also investigated. The yield of char-N decreased with an increase of pyrolysis temperature. Vitrinite from lower rank coal had lower yield of char-N than that from the high rank coal.     

Reduction of tars by dolomite cracking during two-stage gasification of olive cake

The effective implementation of biomass gasification has to overcome some difficulties such as the minimization of tars. On the other hand, with a proper design of experimental conditions, biomass gasification can be directed towards the production of hydrogen. The aim of the present study was to investigate the use of dolomite as catalyst to improve tar removal and hydrogen production by a two-stage steam gasification process, using olive cake as raw material. Fixing the olive cake gasification conditions on the first reactor (900 °C, steam flow rate of 190 mg min⁻¹, O₂ flow rate of 7.5 cm³ min⁻¹), the cracking of tars was prompted by: a) steam gasification (steam flow rate in the range 40-190 mg min⁻¹) at 1000 °C, b) catalytic gasification, using dolomite (5% wt.). It was found that increasing steam flow rate up to 110 mg min⁻¹ involves an increase in hydrogen fraction due to the enhancement of water gas and water gas shift reactions. Also, the influence of dolomite was studied at 800 and 900 °C in a second reactor, finding better results at 800 °C, which gave an hydrogen fraction of 0.51.     

Calcium looping gasification for high-concentration hydrogen production with CO2 capture in a novel compact fluidized bed: Simulation and operation requirements

The coal/CaO/steam gasification system is one of the clean coal technologies being developed for hydrogen production with inherent carbon dioxide separation. A novel reactor configuration for the system is proposed in this paper. It consists of three major counterparts: a gasifier, a riser and a regenerator. A regenerable calcium-based sorbent CaO is used to remove carbon dioxide. In the gasifier, the coal-steam gasification reaction occurs with in situ carbon dioxide removal by carbonation reaction. The removal of carbon dioxide favors the gasification and water-shift reaction equilibrium and enables the production of a hydrogen-rich gas stream. CaO is regenerated in the regenerator by burning the unreacted char with oxygen, and a pure stream of carbon dioxide is separated after a cyclone. The regenerated CaO then flows into the riser above the gasifier, and removes the carbon dioxide in the outlet gases from the gasifier and drives the water-gas shift reaction forward, further improving the hydrogen purity. In this work, the feasibility and optimum process conditions of the proposed system were described. The hydrogen purity can reach 96 vol% at a steam flow 80 mol/s and CaO recycle rate 30 mol/s when the carbon conversion rate is 0.50. Increasing the steam flow and CaO recycle rate can enhance the hydrogen yield and purity. With the rise of operation pressure from 1 bar to 10 bar, the hydrogen yield and purity decrease and methane yield increases. High pressure leads to higher calcination temperature. At 10 bar, the temperature for CaCO₃ decomposition is approximately 1100 °C, at such temperature, the sorbent is easy to deactivate. The appropriate temperatures in the gasifier and the riser are 700 and 600 °C, respectively. An analysis of heat integration is conducted. The maximum carbon conversion rate is ∼0.65. A hydrogen production efficiency of 58.5% is obtained at a carbon conversion rate 0.50, steam flow 60 mol/s and CaO recycle rate 30 mol/s, with a hydrogen purity of 93.7 vol%.     

Integrated drying and gasification of wet microalgae biomass to produce H2 rich syngas – A thermodynamic approach by considering in-situ energy supply

A novel integrated drying and gasification of microalgae wet biomass process, involving a chemical-looping combustion (CLC) option to supply energy, is developed using Aspen Plus. The integrated gasification system consists of four primary units, including (i) a wet biomass drying unit, (ii) the gasification system, (iii) the CLC section, and (iv) the gas purification process. The model shows a good accuracy (relative error < 10%) in predicting the product compositions as compared to the experimental results under consistent operating conditions. The performance of the integrated gasification system is evaluated using Spirulina microalgae at various moisture contents (0–45 wt%). The effect of gasifying agents O₂/steam and the fraction of the produced char used in the CLC section on the gasification performance is also evaluated. The tar is successfully reformed into syngas in the pyrolysis stage by adjusting the O₂ flow rate. The C (char) to CLC provides to a positive effect on the syngas composition, particularly for gasification of wet biomass, but brings an adverse impact on the yield of the syngas product. The integration of the CLC process and CO₂ absorber in the gasification system provides high-quality syngas by removing CO₂. The separated pure CO₂ can be used as a feedstock for other chemical industries.     

Kinetics of woodchips char gasification with steam and carbon dioxide

Kinetics of woodchips char gasification has been examined. Steam and CO₂ were used as the gasifying agents. Differences and similarities between kinetics of steam gasification and CO₂ gasification have been discussed. Comparison was conducted in terms of gasification duration, evolution of reaction rate with time and/or conversion, and effect of partial pressure on reaction rate. Reactor temperature was maintained at 900 °C. Partial pressure of gasifying agents varied from 1.5 bars to 0.6 bars in intervals of 0.3 bars. Steam and CO₂ flow rates were chosen so that both gasifying agents had equal amount of oxygen content. CO₂ gasification lasted for about 60 min while steam gasification lasted for about 22 min. The average reaction rate for steam gasification was almost twice that of CO₂. Both reaction rate curves showed a peak value at certain degree of conversion. For steam gasification, the reaction rate peak was found to be at a degree of conversion of about 0.3. However, for CO₂ gasification the reaction rate peak was found to be at a conversion degree of about 0.1. Reaction rates have been fitted using the random pore model (RPM). Average structural parameter, ψ for steam gasification and CO₂ gasification was determined to be 9 and 2.1, respectively. Average rate constant at 900 °C was 0.065 min⁻¹ for steam gasification and 0.031 min⁻¹ for CO₂ gasification. Change in partial pressure of gasifying agents did not affect the reaction rate for both steam and CO₂ gasification.     

High hydrogen content syngas for biofuels production from biomass air gasification: Experimental evaluation of a char-catalyzed steam reforming unit

This work investigates the performance of a reformer reactor for the upgrading of syngas and char derived from a pilot-scale air gasifier. The proposed setup represents a circular approach for the production of hydrogen-rich syngas from air gasification. Specifically, the reforming-unit was operated under a range of temperatures (from 700 °C to 850 °C) and steam flow rates and for each the improvement in producer gas composition and reducing species yield is evaluated. The results highlight that an increase in hydrogen concentration is obtained at higher temperature, moving from 16.2% to 21.3%, without using steam, and to 45.6%, with steam injection on the char-bed, while CO concentration did not follow a monotonic behavior. Moreover, the gas quality index, defined as a ratio between reducing species and inert species, delivered the highest values at the highest temperatures and steam flow rates. These results provide a guide for future gas quality optimization studies.