Exergy analysis of hydrogen production from steam gasification of biomass: A review

Exergy analysis of hydrogen production from steam gasification of biomass was reviewed in this study. The effects of the main parameters (biomass characteristics, particle size, gasification temperature, steam/biomass ratio, steam flow rate, reaction catalyst, and residence time) on the exergy efficiency were presented and discussed. The results show that the exergy efficiency of hydrogen production from steam gasification of biomass is mainly determined by the H₂ yield and the chemical exergy of biomass. Increases in gasification temperatures improve the exergy efficiency whereas increases in particle sizes generally decrease the exergy efficiency. Generally, both steam/biomass ratio and steam flow rate initially increases and finally decreases the exergy efficiency. A reaction catalyst may have positive, negative or negligible effect on the exergy efficiency, whereas residence time generally has slight effect on the exergy efficiency.     

Process simulation and optimization of groundnut shell biomass air gasification for hydrogen-enriched syngas production

In this study, a detailed steady-state equilibrium simulation model was designed using ASPEN Plus software to analyze and assess the efficiency of the groundnut shell biomass air gasification process. The developed model includes three general stages: biomass drying, pyrolysis, and gasification. The predicted results are quite similar to those found in the literature, which is consistent with simulation results being validated against experimental data. The effect of different operating parameters, like the gasification temperature, gasification pressure, and the equivalence ratio (ER), on the syngas composition and H₂/CO ratio is investigated using sensitivity analysis. The findings of the sensitivity analysis revealed that raising the temperature preferred H₂ and CO production, whereas increasing the pressure has favored CO₂ and CH₄ production. Increasing the ER value also boosted CO and CO₂ yield. Moreover, in an effort to optimize the amount of H₂ generated within the process, the sensitivity analysis was used to evaluate the simultaneous effect of operational parameters on the molar fraction of H₂. To maximize H₂ as a desired product, the following operating parameters were achieved: gasification temperature of 894 °C, gasification pressure of 1 bar, and ER of 0.05, resulting in an H₂ molar fraction of 0.64.     

Energy and exergy analysis and optimization of biomass gasification process for hydrogen production (based on air,steam and air/steam gasifying agents)

Growing the consumption of fossil fuels and emerging global warming issue have driven the research interests toward renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources. Biomass gasification is identified as an efficient technology to produce sustainable hydrogen. In this work, energy and exergy analysis coupled with thermodynamic equilibrium model were implemented in biomass gasification process for production of hydrogen. In this regard, a detailed comparison of the performance of a downdraft gasifier was implemented using air, steam, and air/steam as the gasifying agents for horse manure, pinewood and sawdust as the biomass materials. The comparison results indicate that the steam gasification of pinewood generates a more desired product gas compositions with a much higher hydrogen exergy efficiency and low exergy values of unreacted carbon and irreversibility. Then the effects of the inherent operating factors were investigated and optimized applying a response surface methodology to maximize hydrogen exergy efficiency of the process. A hydrogen exergy efficiency of 44% was obtained when the product gas exergy efficiency reaches to the highest value (88.26%) and destruction and unreacted carbon efficiencies exhibit minimum values of 7.96% and 1.9%.     

First and second law thermodynamic analysis of a single and dual-stage ignition biomass downdraft gasifier

The dual-stage ignition biomass downdraft gasifier is an enormous tar reduction technology as against a single-stage ignition biomass gasification. Exergetic analysis of the system guides toward a possible performance enhancement. In dual-stage gasification, around 67.76% of input exergy is destructed in the several components, while 9.16% is obtained as a useful exergy output and 24.34% is found to be as a useful energy output there. The entire unit was assessed with a progressively rising electric load from 15.24 kW to 38.86 kW. The enhanced producer gas quality comes from 57% combustible gas with a higher heating value of 6.524 MJ/Nm³ and tar content of 7 mg/Nm³ after the paper filter, whereas the biomass consumption rate is 58 kg/h at the greatest load with the grate temperature of 1310–1370 °C. The samples of exhaust gas emissions are obtained environmentally favorable. The results even described that the dual-stage ignition biomass downdraft gasifier has significantly greater energetic and exergetic efficiency as compared to the single-stage gasifier.     

Design and thermodynamic assessment of a biomass gasification plant integrated with Brayton cycle and solid oxide steam electrolyzer for compressed hydrogen production

In this paper, a comprehensive thermodynamic evaluation of an integrated plant with biomass is investigated, according to thermodynamic laws. The modeled multi-generation plant works with biogas produced from demolition wood biomass. The plant mainly consists of a biomass gasifier cycle, clean water production system, hydrogen production, hydrogen compression, gas turbine sub-plant, and Rankine cycle. The useful outputs of this plant are hydrogen, electricity, heating and clean water. The hydrogen generation is obtained from high-temperature steam electrolyzer sub-plant. Moreover, the membrane distillation unit is used for freshwater production, and also, the hydrogen compression unit with two compressors is used for compressed hydrogen storage. On the other hand, energy and exergy analyses, as well as irreversibilities, are examined according to various factors for examining the efficiency of the examined integrated plant and sub-plants. The results demonstrate that the total energy and exergy efficiencies of the designed plant are determined as 52.84% and 46.59%. Furthermore, the whole irreversibility rate of the designed cycle is to be 37,743 kW, and the highest irreversibility rate is determined in the biomass gasification unit with 12,685 kW.     

Thermodynamic modeling of an integrated biomass gasification and solid oxide fuel cell system

An integrated process of biomass gasification and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) is investigated using energy and exergy analyses. The performance of the system is assessed by calculating several parameters such as electrical efficiency, combined heat and power efficiency, power to heat ratio, exergy destruction ratio, and exergy efficiency. A performance comparison of power systems for different gasification agents is given by thermodynamic analysis. Exergy analysis is applied to investigate exergy destruction in components in the power systems. When using oxygen-enriched air as gasification agent, the gasifier reactor causes the greatest exergy destruction. About 29% of the chemical energy of the biomass is converted into net electric power, while about 17% of it is used to for producing hot water for district heating purposes. The total exergy efficiency of combined heat and power is 29%. For the case in which steam as the gasification agent, the highest exergy destruction lies in the air preheater due to the great temperature difference between the hot and cold side. The net electrical efficiency is about 40%. The exergy combined heat and power efficiency is above 36%, which is higher than that when air or oxygen-enriched air as gasification agent.     

Hydrogen production through biomass gasification in supercritical water: A review from exergy aspect

Hydrogen production through supercritical water gasification (SWG) of biomass has been widely studied. This study reviews the main factors from exergy aspect, and these include feedstock characteristics, biomass concentration, gasification temperature, residence time, reaction catalyst, and reactor pressure. The results show that the exergy efficiencies of hydrogen production are mainly in the range of 0.04–42.05%. Biomass feedstock may affect hydrogen production by changing the H₂ yield and the heating value of biomass. Increases in biomass concentrations decrease the exergy efficiencies, increases in gasification temperatures generally increase the exergy efficiencies, and increases in residence times may initially increase and finally decrease the exergy efficiencies. Reaction catalysts also have positive effects on the exergy efficiencies, and the reviewed results show that the effects are followed KOH > K₂CO₃ > NaOH > Na₂CO₃. Reactor pressure may have positive, negative or negligible effects on the exergy efficiencies.     

Thermodynamic modeling and assessment of a combined coal gasification and alkaline water electrolysis system for hydrogen production

The performance of a clean energy system that combines the coal gasification and alkaline water electrolyzer concepts to produce hydrogen is evaluated through thermodynamic modeling and simulations. A parametric study is conducted to determine the effect of water ratio in coal slurry, gasifier temperature, effectiveness of carbon dioxide removal, and hydrogen recovery efficiency of the pressure swing adsorption unit on the system hydrogen production. The exergy efficiency and exergy destruction in each system component are also evaluated. The results reveal that the overall energy and exergy efficiencies of this system are ∼58% and ∼55%, respectively. The weight ratio of the hydrogen yielded to the coal fed to this system is ∼0.126. Although this system produces hydrogen from coal, the greenhouse gases emitted from this system are fairly low.     

Exergy analysis of renewable light olefin production system via biomass gasification and methanol synthesis

The conceptual light olefin production system from biomass via gasification and methanol synthesis was simulated and its thermodynamic performance was evaluated through exergy analysis. The system was made up of gasification, gas composition adjustment, methanol synthesis, light olefin synthesis, steam & power generation and cooling water treatment. The in-depth exergy analysis was performed at the levels of system, subsystem and operation component respectively. The gasifier and the tail gas combustor were the main sources of irreversibility with exergy destruction ratios of 17.0% and 16.8% of the input exergy of biomass. The steam & power generation subsystem accounted for 43.4% of the overall exergy destruction, followed by 41.0% and 5.69% in the subsystems of gasification and gas composition adjustment respectively. The sensitivity evaluation of the operation parameters of gasifier indicates that the system efficiency could be improved by enhancing syngas yield and subsequent yield of light olefins. The overall exergetic efficiency of 30.5% is obtained at the mass ratios of steam to biomass and O₂-rich gas (95 vol%) to biomass (S/B and O/B) of 0.26 and 0.14 and gasification temperature at 725 °C.     

First and second law analysis of pulse tube refrigerator

The first and second law of thermodynamics was used to analyze the orifice type and the double-inlet type of pulse tube refrigerator (PTR). Detailed dynamic characteristics of the thermodynamics, flow and heat transfer processes in the PTR were revealed, including the dynamic pressure variations, transient gas temperature, mass flow rate in the PTR. The exergy loss method was used to analyze each component in the PTR for the first time, and the performance coefficients of all components of PTR have been obtained. It was found that the performance coefficient of the double-inlet PTR was 0.108, 9% higher than that of the orifice PTR. The analysis also showed that the exergy efficiency of the double-inlet PTR was 29.95%, significantly higher than that of the orifice PTR (25.04%). In addition, it was found that the exergy losses in the regenerator and orifice were substantially larger than in other components of the PTR system. The optimal design of these two key components is, therefore, essential for the further improvement of the PTR performance.     

Exergy analysis of hydrogen production plants based on biomass gasification

Biomass gasification is a promising option for the sustainable production of hydrogen rich gas. Five different commercial or pilot scale gasification systems are considered for the design of a hydrogen production plant that generates almost pure hydrogen. For each of the gasification technique models of two different hydrogen production plants are developed in Cycle-Tempo: one plant with low temperature gas cleaning (LTGC) and the other with high temperature gas cleaning (HTGC). The thermal input of all plants is 10 MW of biomass with the same dry composition. An exergy analysis of all processes has been made. The processes are compared on their thermodynamic performance (hydrogen yield and exergy efficiency). Since the heat recovery is not incorporated in the models, two efficiencies are calculated. The first one is calculated for the case that all residual heat can be applied, the case with ideal heat recovery, and the other is calculated for the case without heat recovery. It is expected that in real systems only a part of the residual heat can be used. Therefore, the actual value will be in between these calculated values. It was found that three processes have almost the same performance: The Battelle gasification process with LTGC, the FICFB gasification process with LTGC, and the Blaue Turm gasification process with HTGC. All systems include further processing of the cleaned gas from biomass gasification into almost pure hydrogen. The calculated exergy efficiencies are, respectively, 50.69%, 45.95%, and 50.52% for the systems without heat recovery. The exergy efficiencies of the systems with heat recovery are, respectively, 62.79%, 64.41%, and 66.31%. The calculated hydrogen yields of the three processes do not differ very much. The hydrogen yield of the Battelle LTGC process appeared to be 0.097 kg (kg_{(dry biomass)})⁻¹, for the FICFB LTGC process a yield of 0.096 kg (kg_{(dry biomass)})⁻¹ was found, and for the Blaue Turm HTGC 0.106 kg (kg_{(dry biomass)})⁻¹.     

Exergy analysis of sugarcane bagasse gasification

The gasification technology has been object of study of many researchers, especially those involved in promoting large-scale electricity generation in sugarcane mills. This paper presents a simplified model for the gasification process based on chemical equilibrium considerations. The model consists in the minimization of the Gibbs free energy of the produced gas, constrained by mass and energy balances for the system. Despite the simplicity of the model, its results are reliable in identifying the tendencies of the working parameters of the system. A parametric study has been carried aiming the verification of the influence of many variables inherent to the model, such as: gasification temperature, moisture content, and air temperature, among others. The results were compared with those found in literature and real systems. Following this parametric study, an exergy analysis has been performed in order to evaluate irreversibilities associated to the process, and the influence of temperature, moisture, charcoal production, and thermal losses on them. Finally, a first attempt to integrate a gasifier into a sugarcane mill was performed, which showed the potential benefits regarding the use of such technology.     

Exergy analysis of biomass staged-gasification for hydrogen-rich syngas

Using Aspen Plus simulations, exergy analyses of hydrogen-rich syngas production via biomass staged-gasification are carried out for three configurations, namely, staged-gasification with pyrolysis gas combustion and char gasification (C-1), staged-gasification with pyrolysis gas reforming and char gasification (C-2), and staged-gasification with pyrolysis gas reforming and char combustion (C-3). The results show that, for the gasification and reforming processes, the exergy loss of pyrolysis gas with tar reforming is less than that of char gasification. As for the system, it is conducive to generating hydrogen by making full use of the hydrogen element (H) in biomass instead of the H in water. The benefits of C-1 are that it removes tar and produces higher yield and concentration of hydrogen. However, C-2 is capable of obtaining higher exergy efficiency and lower exergy loss per mole of H₂ production. C-3 theoretically has greater process performances, but it has disadvantages in tar conversion in practical applications. The appropriate gasification temperature (T_G) are in the range of 700–750 °C and the appropriate mass ratio of steam to biomass (S/B) are in the range of 0.6–0.8 for C-1 and C-3; the corresponding parameters for C-2 are in the ranges of 650–700 °C and 0.7–0.8, respectively.     

Exergy analysis of hydrogen production from biomass gasification

For a given set of operating conditions, the hydrogen production from biomass gasification can be improved through optimization of the operating parameters and efficiencies. The present approach can predict hydrogen production via biomass gasification in a range of 10–32 kg/s from biomass (sawdust wood). The biomass is introduced to a gasifier at an operating temperature range of 1000–1500 K. Also, 4.5 kg/s of steam at 500 K is used as gasification medium. Results indicate that improvement in hydrogen production from biomass steam gasification depending on the amount of steam and quantity of biomass feeding to the gasifier as well the operating temperature. Over the range of feeding biomass, the hydrogen yield reaches 80–130 g H₂/kg biomass while in the operating temperature examined, the hydrogen yield reaches 80 g H₂/kg biomass. On mole basis it is found that, in the first range of H₂ varies from 51 to 63% in the studied range of feeding biomass in existing 4.5 kg/s from steam while H₂ gets to 51–53% in existing of 6.3 kg/s from steam.     

Evaluation on hydrothermal gasification of waste tires based on chemical equilibrium analysis

Massive amounts of waste tires are produced globally, which brings great challenges to the disposal and recycling of used tires. Hydrothermal gasification is a promising option for recycling waste tires. The hydrothermal gasification of waste tires was evaluated based on the chemical equilibrium analysis along with the response surface methodology (RSM) in terms of subcritical temperature range (250–300 °C), transition temperature range (350–400 °C), supercritical temperature range (550–600 °C), supercritical pressure (22.5–30.5 MPa) and feedstock concentration (5–20 wt%). CH₄ yield at 350 °C reached a maximum, 41.575 mmol/g. H₂ yield increased from 0.0283 to 53.602 mmol/g with increasing the temperature from 250 °C to 600 °C. CH₄ yield at the supercritical temperature increased with lifting the feedstock concentration, while H₂ yield decreased. The optimal parameters regarding maximum H₂ and CH₄ yields in the subcritical temperature range were 300 °C, 22.5 MPa and 12.5 wt%, respectively, while they in the supercritical temperature range were 550 °C, 30.5 MPa and 5.4 wt%, respectively. RSM was more suitable for predicting H₂ yield in the hydrothermal gasification of waste tires at subcritical and supercritical temperature ranges, but it was available for predicting CH₄ yield in three temperature ranges. This study can provide basic data for the hydrothermal treatment of waste tires.     

Steam and air fed biomass gasification: Comparisons based on energy and exergy

Results are reported of thermodynamic analyses of a biomass gasification unit in which sawdust is the biomass feed and the gasifying medium is either air or steam. Energy and exergy analyses are performed for the system and each of its components. A parametric study reveals the effect of design and operating parameters on the system's performance and energy and exergy efficiencies. The results show that the adiabatic temperature of biomass gasification significantly changes with the type of the gasifying medium. In addition, the exergy and energy efficiencies are observed to be higher when air is the gasifying medium rather than steam, while the system performance and exergy efficiencies are dependent on the moisture content of the feed biomass. The results are significant because they quantify the strong dependence of biomass gasification, which can be used for syngas or hydrogen production, on moisture content, and gasifying medium.     

Exergoeconomic analysis of hydrogen production from biomass gasification

In this study, we investigate biomass-based hydrogen production through exergy and exergoeconomic analyses and evaluate all components and associated streams using an exergy, cost, energy and mass (EXCEM) method. Then, we define the hydrogen unit cost and examine how key system parameters affect the unit hydrogen cost. Also, we present a case study of the gasification process with a circulating fluidized bed gasifier (CFBG) for hydrogen production using the actual data taken from the literature. We first calculate energy and exergy values of all streams associated with the system, exergy efficiencies of all equipment, and determine the costs of equipment along with their thermodynamic loss rates and ratio of thermodynamic loss rate to capital cost. Furthermore, we evaluate the main system components, consisting of gasifier and PSA, from the exergoeconomic point of view. Moreover, we investigate the effects of various parameters on unit hydrogen cost, such as unit biomass and unit power costs and hydrogen content of the syngas before PSA equipment and PSA hydrogen recovery. The results show that the CFBG system, which has energy and exergy efficiencies of 55.11% and 35.74%, respectively, generates unit hydrogen costs between 5.37 $/kg and 1.59 $/kg, according to the internal and external parameters considered.     

Exergy analysis and multiobjective optimization of a biomass gasification based multigeneration system

Biomass gasification is a process of converting biomass to a combustible gas suitable for use in boilers, engines and turbines to produce combined cooling, heat and power. This paper presents a detailed model of a biomass gasification system and designs a multigeneration energy system which uses the biomass gasification process for generating combined cooling, heat and electricity. Energy and exergy analyses are first applied to evaluate the performance of the designed system. Next, minimizing total cost rate and maximizing exergy efficiency of the system are considered as two objective functions and a multiobjective optimization approach based on differential evolution algorithm and local unimodal sampling technique is developed to calculate the optimal values of the multigeneration system parameters. A parametric study is then carried out and Pareto front curve is used to determine the trend of objective functions and assess the performance of the system. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is employed to evaluate effects of design parameters on the objective functions. Simulation results are compared with two other multiobjective optimization algorithms and effectiveness of the proposed method is verified using various performance indicators.