Chemical Processing in High-Pressure Aqueous Environments. 7. Process Development for Catalytic Gasification of Wet Biomass Feedstocks

Through the use of a metal catalyst, gasification of wet algae slurries can be accomplished with high levels of carbon conversion to gas at relatively low temperature (350 °C). In a pressurized-water environment (20 MPa), near-total conversion of the organic structure of the algae to gases has been achieved in the presence of a supported ruthenium metal catalyst. The process is essentially steam reforming, as there is no added oxidizer or reagent other than water. In addition, the gas produced is a medium-heating value gas due to the synthesis of high levels of methane, as dictated by thermodynamic equilibrium. As opposed to earlier work, biomass trace components were removed by processing steps so that they did not cause processing difficulties in the fixed catalyst bed tubular reactor system. As a result, the algae feedstocks, even those with high ash contents, were much more reliably processed without plugging the feeding systems or the fixed catalyst bed. High conversions were obtained even with high ...

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