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Article history: A comprehensive process model is developed for biomass gasification in an atmospheric
Received 10 February 2007 fluidized bed gasifier using the ASPEN PLUS simulator. The proposed model addresses both
Received in revised form hydrodynamic parameters and reaction kinetic modeling. Governing hydrodynamic
19 February 2008 equations for a bubbling bed and kinetic expressions for the char combustion are adopted
Accepted 29 February 2008 from the literature. Four ASPEN PLUS reactor models and external FORTRAN subroutines
Available online 11 April 2008 for hydrodynamics and kinetics nested in ASPEN PLUS simulate the gasification process.
Different sets of operating conditions for a lab-scale pine gasifier are used to demonstrate
Keywords:
validation of the model.
Biomass
Temperature increases the production of hydrogen and enhances carbon conversion
Gasification
efficiency. Equivalence ratio is directly proportional to carbon dioxide production and
Fluidized bed
carbon conversion efficiency. Increasing steam-to-biomass ratio increases hydrogen and
Simulation
carbon monoxide production and decreases carbon dioxide and carbon conversion
ASPEN PLUS
efficiency. Particle average size in the range of 0.25–0.75 mm does not seem to contribute
significantly to the composition of product gases.
& 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Corresponding author at: Environmental Systems Engineering, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, Saskatchewan,
Canada S4S 0A2. Tel.: +1 306 558 4490; fax: +1 306 585 4855.
E-mail address: Nader.Mahinpey@uregina.ca (N. Mahinpey).
0961-9534/$ - see front matter & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2008.02.020
ARTICLE IN PRESS
1246 BIOMASS AND BIOENERGY 32 (2008) 1245 – 1254
C þ H2 O ! CO þ H2 (2)
Here, a is a mechanism factor [19] that changes, in the 2.3.1. Bed hydrodynamics
range of 0.5–1, when CO or CO2, is carried away from the char Kunii and Levenspil [24] introduced the following equation to
particle during char combustion. The factor, a, is a function of calculate the minimum fluidization velocity for fine particles:
the temperature and average diameter of the char particles. 33:7m pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
In reaction (5), (2b)/b represents the fraction of the steam umf ¼ ð 1 þ 3:59 105 Ar 1Þ (9)
rg dp
consumed by reaction (2) and 2(b1)/b represents the fraction
of steam consumed by reaction (4). Matsui et al. [18] d3p rg ðrs rg Þg
experimentally determined b to be in the range of 1.1–1.5 at Ar ¼ (10)
m2
750–900 1C. For the proposed model, the values of a and b
The following correlations, developed by Babu et al. [25,26],
equal 0.9 and 1.4, respectively, and show the best agreement
are used to determine the volume fraction occupied by
with experimental data.
bubbles in a fluidized bed
Lee et al. [17] defines the reaction rate equations for the
mentioned reactions as follows: 10:978ðu umf Þ0:738 r0:376
s d1:006
p
B ¼ 1:0 þ (11)
dXCO ECO n u0:937
mf
r0:126
g
¼ kCO exp PO ð1 XCO Þ2=3 (6)
dt RT 2
b ¼ 1 1=B (12)
dXSG ESG n
¼ kSG exp PH O ð1 XSG Þ2=3 (7) where u the superficial gas velocity, is not a constant
dt RT 2
parameter, due to the gas production resulting from
dXCO dXSG r s Y C homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions. Yan et al. [26]
rC ¼ þ C (8)
dt dt MC demonstrated the importance of considering varying
gas velocity in obtaining results with higher precision in
Previous studies [20,21] considered parameter n to be equal
simulation.
to 1.0 in Eqs. (6) and (7). For the steam-gasification reaction,
The bed void fraction [24] is then given by the following:
some studies [22,23] reported different numbers for n, but it is
actually 1.0 in the steam partial pressure range of f ¼ b þ ð1 b Þmf
0.25–0.8 atm. Kinetic parameters can be found in Table 1. mf ¼ 0:4 (13)
Fluidized bed reactor is divided into two regions: bed and 1 fb ¼ ð1 f Þ expðazÞ (14)
freeboard Kunii and Levenspiel [24] prepared a graph from reported
The fluidization state in the bed is maintained in the data that correlates the constant a with particle size and
bubbling regime superficial gas velocity. This graph can be used in the
The volume fraction of solids decreases as height in- following range:
creases, corresponding to the coalescence of bubbles in
u p 1:25 m=s
the bed and the returning of solid particles to the bed in
the TDH zone dp p 800 mm
Volumetric flow rate of gas increases along with height,
The constant a for this simulation has been found from the
corresponding to the production of gaseous products
graph as follows:
The mixing of solid particles, consisting of ash, char
particles, and bed material, is perfect 1:8
a¼ . (15)
The reactor is divided into a finite number of equal u
elements with constant hydrodynamic parameters
The fluidized bed is one-dimensional; any variations in 2.4. ASPEN PLUS model
conditions are considered to occur only in the axial
direction. The different stages considered in ASPEN PLUS simulation, in
order to show the overall gasification process, are decom-
position of the feed, volatile reactions, char gasification, and
gas–solid separation.
Reactor Description
block 3. Model validation
RYIELD Models a reactor by specifying reaction yields of
In order to validate the simulation results, experimental data
each component. This model is useful when
reaction stoichiometry and kinetics are unknown from gasification of pine in a lab-scale fluidized bed gasifier
and yield distribution data or correlations are was used; details of the setup can be found elsewhere [14].
available Tables 3 and 4 show feed material and reactor characteristics
used in the simulation.
RGIBBS Models single-phase chemical equilibrium, or
simultaneous phase and chemical equilibrium by Lv et al. [14] studied the influence of temperature,
minimizing Gibbs free energy, subject to atom equivalence ratio (ER), steam-to-biomass ratio, and biomass
balance constraints. This model is useful when average particle size on gas composition and carbon conver-
temperature and pressure are known and reaction sion efficiency. They considered four main gases (i.e. H2, CO,
stoichiometry is unknown CO2, CH4) to study gas production.
RCSTR Models a continuous-stirred tank reactor. This Equivalence ratio and carbon conversion efficiency are
model is useful when reaction kinetics is known. defined, respectively, as follows:
This model is useful when solids, such as char, are
participating in the reactions
Weight oxygen ðairÞ=weight dry biomass
ER ¼ (16)
Stoichiometric oxygen ðairÞ=biomass ratio
ARTICLE IN PRESS
BIOMASS AND BIOENERGY 32 (2008) 1245 – 1254 1249
Total rate of carbon in the outlet stream temperatures higher than 800 1C. Simulation results for
ZC ¼ 1 (17)
Total rate of carbon in the feed stream carbon monoxide in Fig. 3 display good qualitative prediction
Simulation results were compared with all sets of experi- of experimental data in the whole range, and carbon dioxide
mental data. The sum squared deviation method was used to production is underestimated in Fig. 4. Also, simulation
estimate the accuracy of simulation results [29]. results in Fig. 5 show good accuracy for methane production.
N y y 2 Gases with a CnHm formula are the result of non-equili-
X ie ip
RSS ¼ (18) brium processes. Thus, because of the assumption in this
i¼1
yie
study that homogeneous reactions follow Gibbs equilibrium,
RSS methane is the only possible hydrocarbon in the gasification
MRSS ¼ (19) products.
N
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Mean error ¼ MRSS (20)
The analysis of data for product gases is shown in Table 5.
Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide show the lowest and
highest error, respectively, in all sets of experiments.
Table 4 – Experimental setup parameters used in the Fig. 2 – Effect of temperature on hydrogen. Biomass feed
simulation rate: 0.445 kg/h; air: 0.5 N m3/h; steam rate: 1.2 kg/h.
Air
Temperature (1C) 65
Flow rate (N m3/h) 0.5–0.7
Steam
Temperature (1C) 145
Flow rate (kg/h) 0–1.8
Bed material
Silica sand
Average particle size (mm) 0.275
Weight (g) 30 Fig. 3 – Effect of temperature on carbon monoxide. Biomass
feed rate: 0.445 kg/h; air: 0.5 N m3/h; steam rate: 1.2 kg/h.
Mean error
H2 CO CO2 CH4
Fig. 4 – Effect of temperature on carbon dioxide. Biomass Fig. 6 – Effect of temperature on carbon conversion
feed rate: 0.445 kg/h; air: 0.5 N m3/h; steam rate: 1.2 kg/h. efficiency. Biomass feed rate: 0.445 kg/h; air: 0.5 N m3/h;
steam rate: 1.2 kg/h.
Fig. 9 – Effect of ER on carbon dioxide. Biomass feed rate: Fig. 12 – Effect of steam-to-biomass ratio on hydrogen.
0.512 kg/h; temperature: 800 1C; steam rate: 0.8 kg/h. Biomass feed rate: 0.445 kg/h; temperature: 800 1C, air:
0.5 N m3/h.
4. Future work
Fig. 18 – Effect of biomass particle size on carbon monoxide. Good qualitative agreement between model prediction and
Biomass feed rate: 0.512 kg/h; temperature: 800 1C, air: experimental data was achieved. However, to improve the
0.6 N m3/h. simulation results, some modifications should be considered.
The present paper intended to present the simulation results
of parametric study of the effects of temperature, equivalence
ratio, steam-to-biomass ratio, and particle size on gas compo-
sition (i.e., H2, CO, CO2, and CH4) and carbon conversion. Tar
formation will improve the predicted results in the simulation.
Detailed experimental data about the influence of operating
conditions on the formation of tar along with the kinetics
studies is needed to obtain a thorough evaluation. The
chemical formula of tar is CxHyOz. The parameters (x, y, z)
are temperature and heating rate dependent. Such study is
being carried out in our lab and results will be communicated
very soon. Once these results are analyzed, the tar production
can be implemented in the current model by defining non-
equilibrium products in the RGIBBS reactor.
Mass transfer inside solid particles is an important para-
meter in gas–solid reactions, and heat transfer inside
Fig. 19 – Effect of biomass particle size on carbon dioxide. particles, between phases, and between material and wall is
Biomass feed rate: 0.512 kg/h; temperature: 800 1C, air: another feature that should be included in order to achieve
0.6 N m3/h. better simulation prediction. Radial dispersion inside the
reactor helps to see wall effects on the hydrodynamics of the
fluidized bed reactor. Additional modeling studies with more
detailed assumptions are underway, and results of such
studies will be communicated upon their completion.