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Renewable Energy
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Article history:
Received 19 June 2014
Accepted 30 December 2014
Available online 4 February 2015
This work present a novel primary method, for tar reduction in downdraft gasication. The principle of
this new technology is to change the uid dynamic behaviour of the mixture, formed by pyrolysis
product and gasication agent in combustion zone; allowing a homogeneous temperature distribution in
radial direction in this reaction zone. To achieve the change in the uid dynamic behaviour of the
mixture; the entry of gasication agent to combustion zone is oriented by means of wall nozzles in order
to form a swirl ow. This modication in combination with the extension of the reduction zone, will
allow, to increases the efciency of the tar thermal cracking inside the gasier and the extension of the
Boudouard reactions. Consequently, the quantity of tar passing through the combustion zone without
cracking and the concentration of tar in the nal gas, decrease signicantly in relation with the common
value obtained for this type of reactor, without affecting signicantly the heating value of the producer
gas. In this work is presented a new design for 15 kW downdraft gasication reactor, with this technology implemented, the tar content obtained in the experiments never overcome 10 mg/Nm3, with a
lower heating value of 3.97 MJ/Nm3.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Biomass
Downdraft gasier
Gasication
Tar
Swirl ow
1. Introduction
Biomass, mainly in the form of wood, is the oldest form of energy used by humans. Biomass generally means a relatively dry
solid of natural matter that has been specically grown or has
originated as waste or residue from handling such materials [1].
The thermochemical conversion of biomass (pyrolysis, gasication,
combustion) is one of the most promising non-nuclear forms of
future energy. Biomass is a renewable source of energy and has
many ecological advantages [2]. Gasication is the key technology
of biomass based power generation; is a high-temperature process
(873e1273 K) that decomposes complex biomass hydrocarbons
into gaseous molecules, primarily hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and
carbon dioxide; also are formed some tars, char, methane, water,
and other constituents. Several institutions working on biomass
gasication have given many denitions of tar. In the EU/IEA/USDOE meeting on tar measurement protocol held in Brussels in the
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: einara@feg.unesp.br (E.B. Machin), traviesocu@gmail.com,
traviesocu@yahoo.com (D.T. Pedroso).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2014.12.069
0960-1481/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2. Process principle
In the Imbert design of downdraft gasier, the gasication agent
is fed above a constriction (throat) by nozzles uniformly distributed
on the wall of the combustion chamber, oriented toward the centre
of the circle, that describe the perimeter of the combustion
chamber. In this design, some cool zones are created near to the
nozzles, where the temperature is not sufciently higher to permit
the thermal cracking of the tar present in the mixture and to undergo its secondary gasication [15]. This is one of the reasons for
the presence of tar in the producer gas. If tarry gas is produced from
this type of gasier, is common practice reduce the central
constriction area, until a gas with low tar content can be produced.
However, this area dimensions also play an important role in the
gas production rate.
In order to avoid the formation of cool zones, it is proposed in
this work to modify the uid dynamic behaviour of the mixture
formed by the pyrolysis gases and the gasication agent in the
combustion chamber.
I
G
Vr0 ; tdl
(1)
479
480
Table 1
Elemental composition and HHV of the studied biomasses.
Biomass
C
%wt db
H
%wt db
N
%wt db
O
%wt db
Ash
%wt db
Moisture
%wt
HHV
MJ/kg
Peach
Olive
Pine
48.06
46.43
48.18
5.83
5.63
5.71
0.55
0.55
0.15
44.03
44.91
43.89
1.53
2.48
2.07
9.8
10.6
9.0
18.74
17.80
18.67
the gasication process (Fig. 2). The internal capacity is 0.452 m3,
the height of the gasier is 1.02 m and the internal radius at the
drying e pyrolysis zone is 0.30 m. The dimensions of reduction
zone are enlarged to boost the rate of the Boudouard and the
wateregas reactions, in order to increase the concentration of CO
and H2 in the producer gas and also decrease the gas temperature.
The gasication agent for the experiments (air) is supplied using an
electric blower with control valve, capable of supply the required
air for the gasication process.
The lines are heated up to 453 K in order to prevent condensation of the producer gas compounds inside the conducts and the
measurement device. The producer gas sample is ltered, cooled
and drained, before be analysed in the Gasboard-3100P mobile gas
analyser. The temperature are measured by mean of six thermocouples (type K) located at different height of the reactor bed. Air
and gas ows are measured with an orice and differential
manometer. All the experimental data is recorded by data logger in
5 min intervals. The simplied experimental setup for the test of
the modied reactor is presented in Fig. 3.
3.3. Tar sampling principle
The principle of the test method for gravimetric tar measurement is based on the continuous sampling of a gas stream,
481
Table 2
Operating parameters.
Biomass
Olive
(h)
(K)
(kg)
(Nm3/h)
3.80
Peach
2.50
513
18
531
49
880
30
1193
60
1123
68
417
7
8.74
473
20
491
21
780
25
1173
65
1153
73
425
9
7.6
5.74
28.9
5.3
18.4
Pine
3.10
503
22
521
18
853
22
1143
61
1103
62
408
5
7.75
5.4
21.3
482
Table 3
Tests results.
Biomass
Inputs
Gasier conditions
Feed
(kg/h)
Gasier air (20 C, 1 bar)
(kg/h)
Outputs
Dry gas
(kg/h)
Water
(g/Nm3)
Char e ash
(kg/h)
Tar
(mg/Nm3)
Error
0.01
SD
Dry gas analysis
CO
(% vol.)
H2
(% vol.)
CO2
(% vol.)
CH4
(% vol.)
O2
(% vol.)
N2
(% vol.)
Dry gas HHV
(MJ/Nm3)
Gas density
(kg/Nm3)
Operating ratios
O2/dry biomass
CO/CO2
H2/CO
Mass balance and energy efciency
Mass in/mass out
Cold gas efciency
Olive
Peach
Pine
3.3
6.79
3.05
6.20
2.5
6.45
9.02
114.5
0.160
9.10
8.60
96.5
0.085
4.07
8.17
102.3
0.128
8.73
0.19
0.19
0.19
17.4
13.2
12.4
0.8
1.3
54.9
3.55
1.183
17.7
15.0
13.5
1.2
0.9
51.7
3.97
1.167
16.0
12.1
11.4
0.2
0.9
59.4
3.65
1.191
0.45
1.40
0.76
0.44
1.31
0.85
0.44
1.40
0.76
1.01
0.61
0.98
0.78
0.99
0.58
Fig. 5. Temperature prole along the reactor height in the 3rd experimental test using
Olive.
Fig. 6. Comparison between the gas quality obtained by different authors and the
present study.
formation of cool zones inside it and increases the thermal homogenization in this reaction zone was developed. This modication together with an extension of the reduction zone allows
diminishing the tar content in the producer gas. The mean values of
this parameter in all the experimental tests were lower than 10 mg/
Nm3. The low tar and particle content makes the producer gas
obtained in this reactor suitable to the use in cycle Otto engines.
Acknowledgement
We are grateful to the Coordination for the Improvement of
Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) (process 5993105), from the
Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC) and to the National Council
for Scientic and Technological Development (CNPq) (process
162633/2013-0) from the Ministry of Science and Technology
(MCT) for their generous nancing support to this research.
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