Experimental and modeling studies of Portuguese peach stone gasification on an autothermal bubbling fluidized bed pilot plant

Abstract Among the renewable energies available, biomass constitutes an auspicious option, due to its environmental-friendly character allied to its significant energy supply. As a path to maximize biomass energy efficiency, gasification has been reported as an adequate technology. Numerical models that can predict and optimize the experimental conditions as well as the equipment design for biomass gasification are imperative, towards a cost-saving and sustainable performance. This work shows the experimental and numerical results of thermal gasification of Portuguese peach stone. Assays were performed using a thermal gasification pilot plant with a bubbling fluidized bed at temperatures ranging from 750° C to 850° C with mass flow rates of 30 kg/h to 60 kg/h. A homemade comprehensive two-dimensional CFD model is proposed to optimize the operating conditions of the biomass gasification process. The numerical model results were compared with experimental data and good agreement was found. A parametric study was performed in order to understand the influence of moisture content, steam to biomass ratio and equivalence ratio in the composition of the producer gas. The results of the study showed a negative impact of moisture and equivalence ratio over conversion efficiency and producer gas quality, and a positive impact for steam to biomass ratio which promotes higher calorific values and overall efficiency for the process.

[1]  B. B. Krieger,et al.  Modelling and experimental verification of physical and chemical processes during pyrolysis of a large biomass particle , 1985 .

[2]  Colomba Di Blasi,et al.  Modeling chemical and physical processes of wood and biomass pyrolysis , 2008 .

[3]  C. Palma,et al.  Modelling of tar formation and evolution for biomass gasification: A review , 2013 .

[4]  Eliseu Monteiro,et al.  Hydrogen-rich gas from gasification of Portuguese municipal solid wastes , 2016 .

[5]  Eliseu Monteiro,et al.  Influence of the Biomass Gasification Processes on the Final Composition of Syngas , 2013 .

[6]  Tamer M. Ismail,et al.  Eulerian – Eulerian CFD model on fluidized bed gasifier using coffee husks as fuel , 2016 .

[7]  Peter Glarborg,et al.  Numerical modeling of straw combustion in a fixed bed , 2005 .

[8]  Mathew J. Hagge,et al.  Modeling the combined impact of moisture and char shrinkage on the pyrolysis of a biomass particle , 2003 .

[9]  J. Kuipers,et al.  Hydrodynamic modelling of dense gas-fluidised beds: comparison and validation of 3D discrete particle and continuum models , 2004 .

[10]  A. Zabaniotou,et al.  Mathematical modelling and simulation approaches of agricultural residues air gasification in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor , 2008 .

[11]  W. Peters,et al.  Product yields and kinetics from the vapor phase cracking of wood pyrolysis tars , 1989 .

[12]  R. Warnecke,et al.  Gasification of biomass: comparison of fixed bed and fluidized bed gasifier , 2000 .

[13]  Y. Haseli,et al.  Modeling biomass particle pyrolysis with temperature-dependent heat of reactions , 2011 .

[14]  P. Lv,et al.  An experimental study on biomass air-steam gasification in a fluidized bed. , 2004, Bioresource technology.

[15]  Paulo Brito,et al.  Energy Valorization of Solid Vines Pruning by Thermal Gasification in a Pilot Plant , 2014 .

[16]  M. Aznar,et al.  Biomass gasification in atmospheric and bubbling fluidized bed: effect of the type of gasifying agent on the product distribution , 1999 .

[17]  Eliseu Monteiro,et al.  Co-gasification and recent developments on waste-to-energy conversion: A review , 2018 .

[18]  Chanchal Loha,et al.  Performance of fluidized bed steam gasification of biomass – Modeling and experiment , 2011 .

[19]  Rajesh N. Patel,et al.  Co-gasification of lignite and waste wood in a pilot-scale (10 kWe) downdraft gasifier , 2017 .

[20]  Umberto Arena,et al.  Process and technological aspects of municipal solid waste gasification. A review. , 2012, Waste management.

[21]  Alberto Coronas,et al.  Review and analysis of biomass gasification models , 2010 .

[22]  L. Helsen,et al.  The crucial role of Waste-to-Energy technologies in enhanced landfill mining: a technology review , 2013 .

[23]  Jo-Shu Chang,et al.  Thermochemical conversion of microalgal biomass into biofuels: a review. , 2015, Bioresource technology.

[24]  G. Barigozzi,et al.  Description, applications and numerical modelling of bubbling fluidized bed combustion in waste-to-energy plants , 2008 .

[25]  Rodney O. Fox,et al.  Segregation in polydisperse fluidized beds : Validation of a multi-fluid model , 2008 .

[26]  D. Geldart.  Types of gas fluidization , 1973 .

[27]  Andrés Z. Mendiburu,et al.  Thermochemical equilibrium modeling of biomass downdraft gasifier: Stoichiometric models , 2014 .

[28]  Ayhan Demirbas,et al.  Hydrogen Production from Biomass by the Gasification Process , 2002 .

[29]  P. Brito,et al.  Analysis of Syngas Quality from Portuguese Biomasses: An Experimental and Numerical Study , 2014 .

[30]  S. Rapagnà,et al.  Steam gasification of almond shells in a fluidised bed reactor: the influence of temperature and particle size on product yield and distribution , 1997 .

[31]  A. Gómez-Barea,et al.  Modeling of biomass gasification in fluidized bed , 2010 .

[32]  C. Hung,et al.  Optimization of Co-Gasification Process in an Entrained-Flow Gasifier Using the Taguchi Method , 2013 .

[33]  A. Bridgwater.  The technical and economic feasibility of biomass gasification for power generation , 1995 .

[34]  F. Berruti,et al.  A KINETIC MODEL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF LIQUIDS FROM THE FLASH PYROLYSIS OF BIOMASS , 1988 .

[35]  G. A. Quadir,et al.  Experimental investigation of a downdraft biomass gasifier , 2002 .

[36]  Rodney O. Fox,et al.  CFD Models for Analysis and Design of Chemical Reactors , 2006 .

[37]  Tapas Kumar Patra,et al.  Biomass gasification models for downdraft gasifier: A state-of-the-art review , 2015 .

[38]  M. Saffar‐Avval,et al.  Two-dimensional mathematical model of a packed bed dryer and experimentation , 2002 .

[39]  L. Baxter.  Biomass-coal co-combustion: opportunity for affordable renewable energy , 2005 .

[40]  Anastasia Zabaniotou,et al.  Process characteristics and products of olive kernel high temperature steam gasification (HTSG). , 2009, Bioresource technology.

[41]  Yiqun Wang,et al.  CFD Studies on Biomass Thermochemical Conversion , 2008, International journal of molecular sciences.

[42]  S. Ergun.  Fluid flow through packed columns , 1952 .

[43]  J. J. Hernández,et al.  Gasification and co-gasification of biomass wastes : Effect of the biomass origin and the gasifier operating conditions , 2008 .

[44]  Sreekanth Pannala,et al.  Multiscale/multiphysics modeling of biomass thermochemical processes , 2010 .

[45]  Peter McKendry,et al.  Energy production from biomass (Part 3): Gasification technologies. , 2002, Bioresource technology.

[46]  Isabel Cabrita,et al.  The study of reactions influencing the biomass steam gasification process , 2003 .

[47]  A. M. Eaton,et al.  Components, formulations, solutions, evaluation, and application of comprehensive combustion models , 1999 .

[48]  I. Janajreh,et al.  Numerical and experimental investigation of downdraft gasification of wood chips , 2013 .

[49]  Weihong Yang,et al.  Gasification of municipal solid waste in the Plasma Gasification Melting process , 2012 .

[50]  W. H. McCrea,et al.  Theoretical astrophysics : atomic theory and the analysis of stellar atmospheres and envelopes , 1936 .

[51]  Eliseu Monteiro,et al.  Assessment of municipal solid wastes gasification in a semi-industrial gasifier using syngas quality indices , 2015 .

[52]  Zhao Xiujian,et al.  Numerical study of gas–solid flow in a precalciner using kinetic theory of granular flow , 2004 .

[53]  A. Bula,et al.  Gasification of biomass wastes in an entrained flow gasifier: Effect of the particle size and the residence time , 2010 .

[54]  G. Itskos,et al.  Characterization of Solid Residues from High Temperature Gasification of Olive Kernel , 2014 .

[55]  M. B. Murillo,et al.  Energetic assessment of air-steam gasification of sewage sludge and of the integration of sewage sludge pyrolysis and air-steam gasification of char , 2014 .

[56]  Colomba Di Blasi,et al.  Modeling wood gasification in a countercurrent fixed‐bed reactor , 2004 .

[57]  R. Kothari,et al.  Thermo chemical conversion of biomass – Eco friendly energy routes , 2012 .

[58]  Z. Zainal,et al.  Gasification of palm empty fruit bunch in a bubbling fluidized bed: a performance and agglomeration study. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[59]  Carlos Roberto Altafini,et al.  Prediction of the working parameters of a wood waste gasifier through an equilibrium model , 2003 .

[60]  Tamer M. Ismail,et al.  Assessment of the miscanthus gasification in a semi-industrial gasifier using a CFD model , 2017 .

[61]  P. Brito,et al.  Using an Eulerian-granular 2-D multiphase CFD model to simulate oxygen air enriched gasification of agroindustrial residues , 2015 .

[62]  Prabir Basu,et al.  Biomass Gasification and Pyrolysis: Practical Design and Theory , 2010 .

[63]  Zissis Samaras,et al.  Experimental study of combustion in a spark ignition engine operating with producer gas from various biomass feedstocks , 2014 .

[64]  Chanchal Loha,et al.  Three dimensional kinetic modeling of fluidized bed biomass gasification , 2014 .

[65]  Rex T.L. Ng,et al.  Modelling and optimisation of biomass fluidised bed gasifier , 2013 .

[66]  B. Launder,et al.  The numerical computation of turbulent flows , 1990 .

[67]  Marc A. Rosen,et al.  Recent advances in the development of biomass gasification technology: A comprehensive review , 2017 .

[68]  Vladimir Strezov,et al.  Sustainability considerations for electricity generation from biomass , 2010 .

[69]  H. L. Lam,et al.  Syngas production from palm kernel shell and polyethylene waste blend in fluidized bed catalytic steam co-gasification process. , 2014 .

[70]  Tamer M. Ismail,et al.  Numerical and experimental studies on updraft gasifier HTAG , 2015 .

[71]  Liejin Guo,et al.  Hydrogen production by sewage sludge gasification in supercritical water with a fluidized bed reactor , 2013 .

[72]  F. Behrendt,et al.  An Eulerian modeling approach of wood gasification in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor using char as bed material , 2010 .

[73]  Andrew Narvaez,et al.  Biomass gasification with air in an atmospheric bubbling fluidized bed. Effect of six operational variables on the quality of the produced raw gas , 1996 .

[74]  A. Atimtay,et al.  Peach and apricot stone combustion in a bubbling fluidized bed , 2005 .

[75]  D. Gidaspow.  Multiphase Flow and Fluidization: Continuum and Kinetic Theory Descriptions , 1994 .

[76]  M. Ni,et al.  Effect of Operating Parameters and Moisture Content on Municipal Solid Waste Pyrolysis and Gasification , 2016 .

[77]  B. M. Gibbs,et al.  Modeling NH3 and HCN emissions from biomass circulating fluidized bed gasifiers , 2003 .

[78]  Guang-bo Zhao,et al.  Experiments and numerical simulation of sawdust gasification in an air cyclone gasifier , 2012 .

[79]  L. Tarelho,et al.  Characteristics of the gas produced during biomass direct gasification in an autothermal pilot-scale bubbling fluidized bed reactor , 2017 .

[80]  T. Løv̊as,et al.  Eulerian–Lagrangian Simulation of Biomass Gasification Behavior in a High-Temperature Entrained-Flow Reactor , 2014 .

[81]  M. P. Morales,et al.  Biomass gasification for electricity generation: Review of current technology barriers , 2013 .

[82]  John Finn Siau,et al.  Transport Processes in Wood , 1984, Springer Series in Wood Science.

[83]  L. T. Fan,et al.  Fluidized-bed steam gasification of rice hull , 1992 .

[84]  Zhiquan Hu,et al.  Hydrogen-rich gas from catalytic steam gasification of biomass in a fixed bed reactor : Influence of temperature and steam on gasification performance , 2009 .

[85]  H. Baum,et al.  Experimental and theoretical investigation of heat and mass transfer processes during wood pyrolysis , 2010 .