Kinetics and performance of raw and torrefied biomass in a continuous bubbling fluidized bed gasifier.

Al-Farraji, Abbas, Marsh, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2110-5744, Steer, Julian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3003-4768 and Valera Medina, Agustin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1580-7133 2019. Kinetics and performance of raw and torrefied biomass in a continuous bubbling fluidized bed gasifier. Waste and Biomass Valorization 10 (5) , pp. 1365-1381. 10.1007/s12649-017-0167-8

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Abstract

This paper is an experimental study of the kinetics of gasification of olive kernel by using a thermogravimetric fluidized bed reactor technique. Gasification of ‘as received’ and torrefied olive kernels were investigated in a lab-scale bubbling fluidized bed gasifier, operating at up to 3.2 kg/hr. The effect of bed temperature between 550°C and 750°C in 50°C increments on the gasification product gas at mass-based equivalence ratios of 0.15 and 0.2 was studied. To explore the potential of torrefied biomass, the gasification results were compared to that of the ‘as received’ biomass. The product gas from torrefied biomass produced higher H2, CO and CH4 concentrations at identical oxidant flow rates in addition to higher cold gas efficiency and higher product gas heating value. The influence of equivalence ratio in gasification was also investigated at reactor temperatures of 750°C and five equivalence ratios (0.15, 0.2, 0.25, 0.3, and 0.35). The results revealed that the torrefied biomass has the highest HHV at an equivalence ratio of 0.2 with a value of 6.09 MJ/Nm3 , while ‘as received’ biomass 4.72 MJ/Nm3 . Kinetic experiments under isothermal conditions were performed for the gasification of the materials in continuous mode. A mass balance model was successfully used to provide the capability of separately determining the rate constant of the reactions taking place. The kinetic parameters were calculated by a first order reaction model giving activation energies for ‘as received’ olive kernels of 84 kJ/mole and for torrefied olive kernels of 106 kJ/mole.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Publisher:	Springer Verlag
ISSN:	1877-2641
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 December 2017
Date of Acceptance:	8 December 2017
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 04:21
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/107693

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