Fuel 78 (1999) 529538

A feasibility study of an alternative power generation system based on biomass gasication/gas turbine concept
Marcio L. de Souza-Santos
1
UNICAMP- University of Campinas, FEM-Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Energy, Cidade Universitaria Zeferino Vaz, Cx. Postal 6122, Campinas, SP 13083-970, Brazil Received 12 June 1998; received in revised form 15 September 1998; accepted 22 September 1998

Abstract A study has been carried on the thermodynamic viability of a newly proposed power generating system based on atmospheric gasication of sugarcane bagasse combined with uidized-bed heat-exchanging and gas turbine. Under imposed conditions, several congurations of the power unit have been tried until the most efcient was found. The performance of that system was compared with a more conventional concept based on bagasse pressurised gasication, gas cleaning and turbine, or BIG/GT process. To ensure equivalence for the comparisons, optimum to near optimum atmospheric and pressurised gasier operations have been obtained with the aid of a comprehensive mathematical simulator. The present work may help to reach decisions concerning developments in the area of power generation based on biomass. 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Power-generation; Gas-turbine; Fluidized-bed; Gasication; Biomass; Simulations

Nomenclature F H w mass ow (kg/s) combustion enthalpy (J/kg) mass fraction

Greek symbols h efciency Subscript G exiting or produced gas stream B bagasse c cold conditions, i.e., at 298 K, dry, and tar free h hot conditions, i.e., at the temperature and composition found in the exiting gas T tar or oil W water or moisture

1. Introduction As a result of its low-sulphur and zero-overall carbon

1 Tel.: 55-19-788-3264; fax: 55-19-239-3722. E-mail address: souzasan@hi.fem.unicamp.br (M.L. de Souza-Santos)

dioxide emissions, biomass has been the focus of several studies on power generation [18]. Among the biomass sources, sugar-bagasse cane appears to be the most attractive for complementary power generation. An example is the state of Sao Paulo (Brazil), which could increment its own production by 16%, or near 2 GW, through the use of that biomass [9]. For that task, advanced process using gas-turbine systems such as Biomass Integrated Gasier/Gas Turbine (BIG/GT) have been extensively described as an excellent option [13]. However, all these processes rely on pressurised gasication with all the inherent problems of hot-gas cleaning to remove particles and alkaline. Very stringent conditions at the turbine entrance should be met in order to minimise erosion, corrosion and deposition. Erosion is mainly caused by particles and the reported [10] tolerances prescribe maximum concentrations between 2 and 200 mg/m 3 (standard). In fact, there is a compromise between the maximum particle size and the concentration of particles in the turbine entering stream [11]. Meadowcroft and Stringer [12] explain that the damage by erosion on the turbine is caused only by particles above 3 mm. At the usual velocities between 200 and 300 m/s, found at the gas between the turbine plates, only particles smaller than the ones mentioned earlier follow the stream lines, and therefore avoid collision with the plates.

0016-2361/99/$ - see front matter PII: S0016-236 1(98)00181-1

1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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M.L. de Souza-Santos / Fuel 78 (1999) 529538

Fig. 1. Proposed alternative power generation system (ABIG/GT).

Corrosion of the plates is caused mainly by the presence of alkaline. Some reported [13,14] tolerances indicate maximum around 200 ppb while Spacil and Luthura [15] comment that values as low as 20 ppb should be met. In addition, corrosion and erosion may combine synergistically. Compared to separated erosion and corrosion effects, their combination could lead to a three-fold increase on the rate of material loss from the turbine plates [12]. It has also been demonstrated that deposition of particles on the plates might contribute for the plate destruction because a favourable ambience could be created for the acceleration of corrosion process [12]. The main cause for these depositions is the presence of ash particles which stick to the plate surface. This process occurs when the temperature of the travelling particles surpasses the ash softening limit. However, even if softening is not reached, deposits can be formed owing to the condensation of alkaline combined with the eventual arrival of very small ( 1 mm) ash particles at the plate surface. This deposition may be caused by diffusion enhanced by thermal effects. The removal of alkaline is carried by condensation which requires lowering the gas stream to reach temperatures between 770 and 920 K. This is a source of efciency loss of the generation system. In addition to the difculties at the gas cleaning, the

feeding system of bagasse into a pressurised equipment usually brings serious technical problems. In view of all that, a process that could avoid, or at least decrease the seriousness of such problems has been proposed [16] and a scheme is presented in Fig. 1. It is based on atmospheric uidized-bed gasication of sugarcane bagasse and includes a system for heat transfer from the gas combustion process to a stream of pressurised air. This conguration will be called here as ABIG/GT and the basic idea behind it is briey described ahead. Atmospheric bubbling uidized-bed gasication produces stream 1, which is injected into an atmospheric combustor where alumina particles are uidized. The hot particles of alumina (stream 24) are fed into a pressurised uidized-bed (7). That feeding can be accomplished by gravity and two compartments (not show in the gure) which can be alternately locked. This bed is uidized by a pressurised stream of air (10). Part (stream 12) of stream (11) of the pressurised hot air should be used for the pneumatic transference of particles from the lower bed (7) to the upper one (1,2). The remaining hot air (stream 13) passes through a particle removal system (not shown) and then injected into the turbine (10). The rest of the system is composed by a system to maximise heat recovery, including a combine steam cycle (equipment 6, 1215). Despite some possible contamination of the air stream

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531

Fig. 2. Studied system of combined cycle employing pressurised gasication (BIG/GT).

[13] with alkaline, projections showed concentrations below the tolerance limit. Therefore, the system would not require to lower the temperature of that stream for alkaline removal. The particle removal can be accomplished by systems such as ceramic micro-cyclones or ceramic lters [17,18]. These cleaning systems could guarantee the low concentrations required at the GT entrance without signicant drops in the stream temperature. However, those particles would be mainly alumina, which does not bring the mentioned problems of melting or softening ash particles. As it would be shown ahead, even if some practical limitation could require a small drop on the temperature of that stream, the conclusions arrived here would not be compromised.

Throughout this text, Cold Efciency is dened by

hc

FG 1

wW wT HG;c ; F B HB

while Hot Efciency is dened by

hh

FG HG;h : FB HB

2. Approach for the analysis To verify the viability of the proposed system, the following approach was used: (1) Search of favourable to optimum operational conditions of the atmospheric and pressurised uidized-bed biomass gasiers. The Cold Efciency was set as optimisation objective. This was accomplished through comprehensive and detailed simulation.

(2) Search for the best arrangement or conguration of the ABIG/GT system. The Process Global Efciency was used as the criterion for selective evolution. This efciency is dened here as the net power output from the process divided by the product between the combustion enthalpy of the gas stream produced by the gasier and its mass ow. The combustion enthalpy should be taken at the actual exiting conditions of the gas leaving the gasier or Hot conditions. Although a combined cycle, the present evaluation kept the system relatively simple and did not include, for instance, devices for intercooling or reheating. This choice was made to facilitate the comparisons between this system and more conventional ones, at least in the rst round of analysis. (3) Repetition of step 2 for the case of more conventional system based on GT consuming the cleaned gas from the pressurised gasication (BIG/GT). At the same level of sophistication as the studied ABIG/GT system, the best

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conguration found for the BIG/GT is presented in Fig. 2. It is believed that inclusion of more elaborate devices for intercooling and reheating in the studied systems, would not signicantly change the conclusions of the present work. 3. Computer codes To accomplish this, two basic tools was employed: (1) A comprehensive simulation program for uidizedbed boilers and gasiers [1921]. The program has been validated against experimental data for various categories of equipment and solid fuels. Among them there is the case of pressurised wood gasication [22]. For other biomasses, the biggest deviations between computational and experimental results are caused by the differences in the devolatilization proles. During this rst approach, it was assumed that the bagasse devolatilization stoichiometry is similar to the wood. A test of this hypothesis was made using experimental results obtained at the Institute of Gas Technology (USA) for pressurised gasication of sugarcane bagasse [23]. Average deviations between simulation predictions and measured values (concentrations, temperatures, and carbon conversions) are at the same order of magnitude than that obtained for wood gasication [22]. Unfortunately, the results of that work with bagasse cannot be published owing to the contract conditions under which it was developed. Future work will concentrate in adding bagasse devolatilization characteristics. This may improve the results even further. (2) A rigorous simulation program for analysis and evaluation of power generation circuits [24,25]. 3.1. Optimisation of the atmospheric and pressurised uidized-bed gasication The comprehensive simulation program for uidized-bed gasiers was used. The following conditions were left as constants. Bagasse characteristics (dry basis) and particle size distribution: The values were in the range of the usually discharged by mills. Bed internal diameter: For the pressurised gasier, the bed internal diameter was chosen as 0.5 m to accommodate plans for a demonstration plant which is being designed. In order to nearly maintain the same uidization supercial velocity, the corresponding bed diameter for the atmospheric case became 2.2 m. The choice had in mind to reproduce similar uidization conditions and to avoid slugging ow in both cases for the whole range of tested conditions. Bed depth: The value of 2 m for the bed height was selected. At some operational conditions, shallower beds have led to some oxygen concentration in the bubbles reaching the top of the bed. Of course, this

jeopardises the gasication efciency (Cold or Hot). In order to maintain a uniform value for all tests, it was decided to set it at the before mentioned value. Future investigations could rene this choice. Freeboard height: It was set to 5 m. This value was above most of the TDH (Transport Disengaging Height) computed in the whole range of operations. In the case of pressurised gasier nominal operational pressure equal to 2.0 MPa. The choice seems to be around the optimum economical value for BIG/GT systems [9]. A possible conrmation of this comes from the fact that this range of pressure has been used for developments at IGT [26]. Mass ow of bagasse feeding (in dry basis) of 0.196 kg/s: The value was set to lead, for instance, to 0.2 kg/s for feeding rate of a 20% moisture bagasse. For the chosen dimensions of the pressurised gasier, that gure provided feeding rates, per unit of cross section of the reactor, in the vicinity of 1 kg/s 1 m 2. This is the same range arrived through experimentation at IGT [23]. In fact, as the oxygen ratio is set, the mass ow of air is given by the bagasse feeding ratio. Therefore, the maximum bagasse feeding should be such that the gas ow could not cause slugging-ow even at the upper limit of tested oxygen ratios. Temperature of the feeding air set at 650 K: In the case of pressurised gasication, this is the temperature of air leaving the compressor. In the atmospheric case, the same temperature was imposed not only to have similar uidization conditions but also because air pre-heating could be employed as part of the cycle heat-recovering strategy. No steam injection: Various tests veried that the moisture in the feeding bagasse was more than enough to provide water for the gasication process. Inert characteristics (composition, densities, and particle size distribution): Alumina was chosen as the inert. The particle size distribution was such that allowed bubbling uidization at the whole range of tested conditions. In addition, low entrainment rates were sought. The parameters adopted as variables were:

1. Bagasse moisture. Although the bagasse usually leaves the mill with 50% moisture, the present work considers the possibility of prior drying employing stack gas streams in the mill or through controlled fermentation [27]. Values below 20% have not been included in this study because they seem unlikely to be economically achievable. The tested cases included moisture levels of 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%. 2. Air is used as the oxidant. Air or oxygen ratio in the range from 16% to 28%. This parameter is dened as the ratio between the mass ow of injected oxygen and the mass ow of oxygen necessary for the stoichiometric combustion of the biomass.

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3.2. Search for the best arrangement or conguration of the ABIG/GT system Once the best condition for the operation of the atmospheric gasication was obtained, the search for the best conguration was possible. In order to accomplish that, several conditions had to be satised. Some of these conditions have been found in the literature [30] or are based on the experience of the Institute of Gas Technology team as well as information from colleagues. They are listed below:
Fig. 3. Cold efciencies for atmospheric gasication of sugarcane bagasse.

It is important to notice that simulated range for the variables (oxygen ratio and bagasse moisture) could not be extended at will because operational problems were predicted or too low gasication efciencies were obtained. Among the operational problems there are: Relatively high or relatively low average bed temperatures. The rst led to collapse of the bed owing to the agglomeration of particles that surpassed the ash softening point. The second to low carbon conversion which led to extremely low gasication efciencies. Unfeasible operation because the supercial gas velocity was too high or too low. The rst led to total pneumatic transport of the particles in the bed. The second could not meet minimum uidization requirements. Figs. 3 and 4 present the results for gasication efciencies in both cases (atmospheric and pressurised conditions). The most important operational parameters and composition of the exit gas for the best conditions are shown in Tables 1 and 2. As can be seen, given the imposed conditions at both levels of operational pressure, the best gasication efciencies were obtained for cases employing 24% oxygen ratio and bagasse fed with 20% moisture. Further details on the internal and overall parameters of gasier operations can be found elsewhere [28,29].

GT inlet pressure loss: 1.1 kPa; GT combustor pressure loss: 3.0% of the inlet; minimum temperature difference in heat exchanging: 10 K; maximum GT exhaust temperature: 950 K; maximum GT ring temperature: 1450 K; maximum average temperature in a steel wall: 1270 K; combustor heat loss plus margin: 2.3% of the Low Heat Value of the fuel; heat losses: 2% of the heat released. turbine mechanical efciency (based on the isoentropic limit): 87%; compressor mechanical efciency (based on the isoentropic limit): 87%; fuel combustion assumed complete (e.g., there is always oxidant excess); streams leaving a uidized bed are almost at the thermal equilibrium. For instance, this forced the mass ow of stream 25 (and therefore 24 as well) (Fig. 1) to be increased in order to keep its temperature close to that of stream 3. This work led to the conguration shown in Fig. 1. The most important conditions and performance parameters presented by Tables 35. 3.3. Search for the best arrangement or conguration of the BIG/GT system The same limitations and conditions as in the ABIG/GT system were imposed here. Without applying intercooling or reheating, the best conguration found is presented in Fig. 2. In order to simulate the losses imposed by the gas-cleaning system, the heat exchanging at equipment 1 required that stream 2 should leave at 870 K. The most important conditions and performance parameters presented by Tables 68. 4. Discussion of the results Under the imposed conditions, the best operations for atmospheric and pressurised gasication of bagasse showed relatively high efciencies when compared with existing processes [26]. As a result of the larger vessel, higher

Fig. 4. Cold efciencies for pressurised gasication of sugarcane bagasse.

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M.L. de Souza-Santos / Fuel 78 (1999) 529538 Table 2 Composition (molar %, wet basis) of the exiting gas from gasication of bagasse fed with 20% moisture and employing 24% oxygen ratio Component Test nominal pressure 101.3 kPa
3

Table 1 Some important operational parameters for gasications of bagasse fed with 20% moisture and employing 24% oxygen ratio Parameter Test nominal pressure 101.3 kPa Mass ow of exiting gas (kg/s) Mass ow of entrained particles (kg/s) Mass ow of particles withdrawn from the bed to maintain constant bed level (kg/s) Void fraction a Minimum uidization velocity a (m/s) Average supercial velocity a (m/s) Mixing index Carbon conversion (%) Mass held by the bed (kg) Residence time (based of the mass ow of feeding solid) (min) Transport Disengaging Height (m) Static bed height (m) Total input power to the gasier (MW) Pressure loss in the distributor (kPa) Pressure loss in the bed (kPa) Average molecular mass of the exiting gas (kg/kmol) Volumetric ow of the exiting gas (m 3/s) (standard conditions: 273.15 K, 1 bar) Mass concentration of tar in the gas leaving the bed and entering the freeboard (%) Enthalpy of exiting gas (hot, wet) (MJ/kg) Enthalpy the exiting gas (cold, dry) (MJ/kg) Hot efciency Cold efciency Average bubble diameter at the distributor (m) Average bubble diameter at the middle of bed (m) Average bubble diameter at the top of bed (m) Temperature of carbonaceous particles a (K) Temperature of inert particles a (K) Emulsion gas temperature in the bed a (K) Bubble phase temperature a (K) Average temperature at the middle of the bed (K) Average temperature at the top of the bed (K) Average temperature at the top of the freeboard (K)
a

2000.0 kPa 0.409 0.1 10 0.0165 H2 H2O H2S NH3 NO N2 SO2 CO CO2 CH4 C2H4 C2H6 C3H6 C3H8 C6H6

2000.0 kPa 7.581 17.300 0.004 0.048 0.000 39.260 0.005 12.372 15.280 7.569 0.030 0.242 0.000 0.000 0.311

0.415 0.0004 0.0096

0.977 0.024 0.399 0.998 95.42 7151 596 5.42 0.93 3.041 0.01 2.32 25.60 0.364

0.845 0.031 0.383 0.879 89.55 508 42 7.73 1.13 3.058 0.01 13.56 26.01 0.353

9.898 14.779 0.004 0.071 0.000 38.100 0.004 14.476 14.791 7.314 0.029 0.234 0.000 0.000 0.300

residence times were obtained in the cases of atmospheric process. Therefore, the carbon conversion and efciencies were higher in this last alternative than for the pressurised one. In spite of that, and as shown ahead, the main conclusions of the present study were not compromised. In both gasication processes, slugging ow could be avoided.
Table 3 Temperatures, pressures and mass ows at streams for the case of ABIG/ GT Stream 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Temperature (K) 1216 2071 1510 1503 1207 997 443 298 768 1039 1450 1450 1450 778 298 302 370 950 405 370 298 298 358 1515 1450 298 302 Pressure (bar, abs) 1.050 1.041 1.040 1.015 1.015 1.015 1.015 1.013 20.40 20.30 20.20 19.998 19.998 1.070 1.013 1.050 80.000 80.000 1.000 0.900 1.013 1.030 1.020 1.090 1.090 1.013 1.050 Mass ow (kg/s) 0.4153 1.256 1.256 1.456 1.456 3.056 3.056 1.800 1.800 1.800 1.800 0.200 1.600 1.600 0.840 0.840 0.546 0.546 0.546 0.546 5.043 5.043 5.043 10.000 10.000 0.226 0.226

0.000

0.000

6.88 5.98 93.96 73.14 0.001 0.232 0.448 1374 1375 1375 1374 1375 1375 1216

6.63 5.59 88.78 65.89 0.002 0.246 0.276 1363 1363 1363 1366 1363 1363 1315

At the middle of the bed

M.L. de Souza-Santos / Fuel 78 (1999) 529538 Table 4 Rate of enthalpy and entropy variations at each equipment for the ABIG/GT system. Equipment Rate of enthalpy variationa (W) 44483 17097 265 11251 158 38405 17097 75 888250 1233600 2972 4598 591890 25891 8 798
a

535

Table 5 Summary of performance parameters for the ABIG/GT system Parameter Value 1049400 4062

Rate of entropy variationa (W/K) 1832 76 175 206 112 1400 137 5 217 211 1 0 166 475 0 0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Total rate of enthalpy change in the system (W) Total rate of entropy chance in the system (W/ K) Consumed power by the system (W) Produced power by the system (W) Net power output (W) Rate of heat loss by the system (W) Input rate of energy as fuel combustion enthalpy (W) a Process global efciency a
a

896630 1825500 928880 332390 2784000 33.37%

Based on stream (1) Fig. 1

Adopted precision of 1 W or 1 W/K

For the two levels of studied pressures, it is interesting to notice that the Cold efciencies, (Figs. 3 and 4) present minima for moistures around 30% to 40%. This can be explained because of two conicting tendencies caused by: 1. Higher moisture on the feeding bagasse which leads to an increase on heat value of the exit gas due, basically, to higher concentrations hydrogen (Fig. 5). 2. Lower moisture on the feeding bagasse which leads to an increase in the carbon conversion (Fig. 6) mainly because of higher average temperatures (Fig. 7) in the reactor. The rate of carbonwater reaction increases with higher concentration of water in the system (Fig. 8) brought with wetter bagasse. To a certain degree, the increase in hydrogen concentration overcompensates the relative decrease on carbon monoxide (Fig. 9) and methane (Fig. 10). In contrast, as a result of the highly endothermic carbonwater reaction, high-moisture operations decrease the average temperature in the bed (Fig. 7). Lower temperatures decrease the rate of carbonwater reaction as well as the other reactions. From the point of view of oxygen ratios, lower values allow relatively high hydrogen concentrations because hydrogen combustion rates are much faster than other fuel gases. As seen, care was taken to propose equivalent congurations for the BIG/GT and ABIG/GT systems. In addition, the two congurations were optimised having in mind the global efciency. In this respect, it can be veried that the temperatures of stack gas for both cases were close and relatively low. The results showed a superiority in efciency around 10% presented by the BIG/GT system over the ABIG/GT alternative. The contrast of inefciencies between those particular

atmospheric and pressurised gasication operations did not affect the main conclusions of the present study. This is because the difference in gasication efciency was in favour of the less efcient conguration, or ABIG/GT. Besides, to eliminate some possible doubts about this conclusion, tests were carried to compute the BIG/GT system using gas with the same composition as the best achieved for atmospheric gasication and vice-versa. The difference in efciency between ABIG and BIG systems stayed almost the same as presented before. Also, a classical Rankine cycle was tested using that gas as fuel and employing the same pressure ratio as in the BIG/GT system above. The efciency obtained for the Rankine cycle was 28.71%. Finally, a study was carried to understand better the reasons for the difference in efciencies between BIG/GT and ABIG/GT systems. The main conclusions are: (1) The solid particle transportation process (stream 25, Fig. 1) from bed 7 to bed 23 is mainly responsible for important losses in the ABIG/GT process. This pneumatic transport requires that a portion of the pressurised air stream, which would, otherwise, pass through the turbine 10, has to be deviated and discharged into an atmosphericpressure leg of the system. The computation of the mass ow required for such a pneumatic transportation was optimistic because assumed the same void fraction as found in the lower uidized bed 7. The adopted void fraction was 0.8, which is in a lower range of that usually found in uidizedbeds. Despite this, the ratio of mass ow between streams 12 and 13 was around 7.7%. This represents almost the total difference between the two systems (BIG and ABIG). No energy recovering process could be found to compensate that difference. (2) The ABIG/GT process requires more equipment than the equivalent BIG/GT system. Therefore, more points for losses are available in the former than in the latter. (3) Finally, it may be possible that the hot air (Stream 13, Fig. 1) in the ABIG/GT process could require some small

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M.L. de Souza-Santos / Fuel 78 (1999) 529538 Table 8 Summary of performance parameters for the BIG/GT system Parameter Total rate of enthalpy change in the system (W) Total rate of entropy chance in the system (W/ K) Consumed power by the system (W) Produced power by the system (W) Net power output (W) Rate of heat loss by the system (W) Input rate of energy as fuel combustion enthalpy (W) a Process global efciency a
a

Table 6 Temperatures, pressures and mass ows at streams for the case of BIG/GT Stream 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 a 22 a
a

Temperature (K) 1315 870 298 763 1473 822 841 405 370 825 384 370 298 298 343 298 303 954 298 764 298 298

Pressure (bar, abs) 20.100 20.000 1.013 20.000 19.900 1.050 1.040 1.015 50.000 50.000 1.050 1.015 1.013 1.030 1.020 1.013 1.070 1.050 1.013 20.050 1.013 20.050

Mass ow (kg/s) 0.4094 0.4094 1.939 1.939 2.348 2.348 2.762 2.762 0.414 0.414 0.414 0.414 4.971 4.971 4.971 0.414 0.414 0.424 0.226 0.226 0.200 0.200

Value 1266700 3180

1062200 2236600 1174300 296360 2631200 44.63%

Based on Stream (1), Fig. 2

To estimate the power input necessary for the bagasse feeding, the streams were assumed as liquid water

drop in the temperature before passing through the ceramic lters. This is because those systems have been tested for temperatures around 1300 K [17]. In contrat, this would not jeopardise the main conclusions of the present work for it would only decrease even more the efciency of the ABIG/ GT system. 5. Conclusions The basic conclusions are: (1) The last version of the Comprehensive Fluidized-Bed
Table 7 Rate of enthalpy and entropy variations at each equipment for the BIG/GT system Equipment Rate of enthalpy variationa (W) 5889 40295 947080 1881800 10 26877 2159 354800 19287 8 2248 110330 378
a

Rate of entropy variationa (W/K) 233 1630 232 312 13 917 0 112 296 0 0 27 0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Adopted precision of 1 W or 1W/K

Simulator (CSFB) is useful for detailed optimisation studies of combustion and gasication processes. These studies are important for the correct approach to power generation strategies. In addition the comprehensive modelling provides a powerful tool for the understanding of several inuences on the equipment performance and internal phenomena. (2) In cases of atmospheric as well as pressurised uidized-bed gasication of sugarcane bagasse, the optimum Cold efciencies are obtained for low moisture feeding bagasse. It is worthwhile to explore improvements on bagasse drying processes. Of course, these studies should be combined with economic considerations. (3) Either atmospheric or pressurised (2 MPa) operations led to maxima of Cold efciencies in the neighbourhood of 24% for the oxygen or air ratio. Renement of the grid, as well as inclusion of other parameters as variables, will be tried in a near future work. (4) If the bagasse drying system could not lead to moisture values below 30%, it might be preferable to feed the gasier with wet bagasse, i.e., with 50% moisture. (5) The simulation program for power units, used in previous works could be adapted to simulate processes involving stream where solid particles were present. It was possible to study several congurations of BIG/GT and ABIG/GT systems. (6) BIG/GT process provided superior efciency in relation to the equivalent ABIG/GT alternative. Differences around 10% in efciency were found, and no success was achieved in trials to decrease that gap. The main cause for such a difference is found in the power required by the pneumatic lifting of the solid from the lower to the upper uidized bed (Fig. 1, equipment 7 and Figs. 2 and 3, respectively). (7) Notwithstanding the demonstrated thermodynamic superiority of the BIG/GT over the ABIG/GT system, it should be remembered that the last one operates with an

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Fig. 5. Hydrogen concentrations in the exit streams for pressurised gasications.

Fig. 9. Carbon monoxide concentrations in the exit streams for pressurised gasications.

Fig. 6. Carbon conversions for pressurised gasications.

Fig. 10. Methane concentrations in the exit streams for pressurised gasications.

atmospheric reactor instead of a pressurized one. In addition, the cleaning gas system is highly simplied. Therefore, an economic study would help to reach a clear decision between those two alternatives. This is left for a future development. Acknowledgements The author would like to express his gratitude to the directory board of IPT-Institute for Technological Research (Sao Paulo, Brazil), for the support for this study as well as to the following colleagues: Eng. Francisco D. Alves de Sousa and Dr. Silvio de Oliveira Jr. (IPT) for suggestions and protable discussions, Dr. Michael Onischak (IGTInstitute of Gas Technology, Illinois, USA) for information regarding problems and successes achieved at pilot units, Dr. Electo Silva Lora, from the Federal University of Itajuba (Minas Gerais, Brazil) for references on hot-gas cleaning systems. References
[1] Williams RH. Biomass gasier/gas turbine power and greenhouse warming, IEA/OECD expert seminar on energy technologies for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, OECD headquarters, Paris, 1989.

Fig. 7. Average temperature at the middle of bed for pressurised gasica-

Fig. 8. Water concentrations in the exit streams for pressurised gasications.

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