Steam gasification of grain dust in a fluidized bed reactor.

ABSTRACT CORN dust was gasified with steam in a 5 cm (2 in.) I.D. bench scale fluid-bed reactor. Experiments were conducted over a temperature range of 867 K to 1033 K (1100 °F-1400 °F) to examine the influence of tempera-ture on the gas composition, yield, heating value and the energy recovery. The gas yield was found to be strongly temperature dependent and increased linearly from 0.13 mVkg (2.0 SCF/lb) at a 867 K to 0.73 mVkg (11.7 SCF/lb) at 1033 K. The produced gas heating value ranged from 9.4 MJ/m3 (251 Btu/SCF) at 867 K to 11.5 MJ/m3 (308 Btu/SCF) at 1033 K with maximum value of 11.6 MJ/m3 (311 Btu/SCF) at 1002 K. The principal components of the product gas were H2, C02 and CO which comprised over 90 percent of the gas. The remain-ing 10 percent consisted of CH4, C2H4 and C2H6. The energy recovery increased linearly from 8 to 55 percent over the temperature range studied.