Biomass Gasification

in a
Fluidized Bed Reactor

Nader Mahinpey, Malcolm Wilson

University of Regina, Energy INet
 Energy INet
¾ Goal is to act as a facilitator in developing
research and demonstration projects.
¾ To build capacity, research and
intellectual.
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above in an effective way.
¾ www.energyinet.com
 University of Regina
¾ Building expertise and capacity in a variety
of capture and storage areas:
z Geological storage of CO2
z Capture of CO2 from flue gases
z Risk assessment, performance assessment
z Gasification – biomass and mixed fuels
z Hydrogen production
Lab-Scale Gasifier
Fluidized Bed Reactor in U of R
Gasification w/oxygen
C + 12 O2 ⎯
⎯→ CO Exothermic

C + O2 ⎯
⎯→ CO2 Highly exothermic
Gasification w/carbon dioxide

C + CO ⎯
⎯→ 2CO Endothermic
2
Gasification w/steam
C + H 2O ⎯
⎯→ CO + H 2 Endothermic

Gasification w/hydrogen
C + 2H2 ⎯
⎯→ CH4 Exothermic
Water- gas shift
CO + H2O ⎯
⎯→ H2 + CO2 MidlyExothermic
Methanation
CO + 3H2 ⎯
⎯→ CH4 + H2O Highlyexothermic
 Experimental Design
¾ Feed: Wheat Straw (Davidson)
¾ Particle diameter: 2 mm
¾ Gasification agent: air & steam
¾ Temperature: 800ºC
¾ Pressure: 1 atm
¾ No inert bed material (fluidized by itself)
 Issues
¾ Bed-agglomeration
¾ Sintering
¾ Fouling and corrosion
¾ Tar formation
¾ Entrainment & Elutriation
¾ Influence of particle size
¾ Emissions: Particulate, NOx, SOx, Unburned
hydrocarbons, Halogen compounds (HCI), Alkali
metal compounds (NaCI, NaOH. KCI, KOH)
 Objectives
¾ Experimental: measuring the composition of product
gas and finding the influence of steam/air ratio,
feed/air ratio on the amount of hydrogen production,
heat transfer study (Film, Single-particle, Emulsion
phase/packet model, Kinetic model), effects of
operating conditions on heat transfer coefficients

¾ Simulation : Kinetics (Different models i.e.,uniform-

reaction model, Shrinking-core model), mass
transfer studies (homogeneous bed approach,
bubbling bed approach), Hydrodynamics
 Kinetics Simulation

¾ Aspen Plus Software Program

Solid Fraction
 Reactors
Yield distribution data available
RYIELD Unknown reaction stochiometry and Devolatilization
kinetics

Unknown or unimportant reaction

RSTOIC kinetic volatile combustion
Known stochiometry

Known reaction kinetic CSTR reactors

User supplied kinetics subroutine
RCSTR when solids, such as char, are
Char combustion
participating in the reactions
 Simulation
¾ Aspen Plus
 Main Reactions of Gasification

¾ Heterogeneous reactions

C + φ O → 2(1 − φ )CO + (2φ − 1)CO 2

2
C + H O → CO + H
2 2
C + CO → 2CO
2
C + 2H → CH
2 4
 Main Reactions of Gasification
(Cont…)
¾ Homogeneous reactions

CO + H O → CO + H
2 2 2
H + 12 O2 → H O
2 2

CO + 1 2 O 2 → CO
2

CO + 3H 2 → CH 4 + H 2 O
 Hydrodynamic simulation

¾ Fluent software program

 Objectives
¾ 2D and 3D modeling and simulation of the
gasifier fluid dynamics in bubbling flow
regime and comparison of the results with
available experimental data using Fluent
CFD package.
¾ Utilizing a UDF (user defined function) for
gasification reactions and comparison of
the results with experimental data.
2D and 3D Modeling
 Bed Expansion

0s 0.1 s 0.2 s 0.3 s 0.5 s 1s 2s 3s 4s 6s 8s 10 s

 Expanded Bed Height
Empirical Formulas Umf* Hf (m)

Hf
= 1+
(
21.4 U − U mf
*
)0.738
d P1.006 ρ P0.376
0.126
0.937 ⎛ p⎞
(U )
H mf *
⎜⎜ wg ⎟⎟
mf 0.07 0.604
⎝ pa ⎠

Hf(2D simulation)=0.63
Hf (3D simulation) =0.62

2D Error=4% over estimates for model

3D Error = 2.7% over estimated for model
Pressure Fluctuation
Volume Fraction of solid
Next Phase (Short term)

¾ Co-gasification of wheat straw and other

waste biomass, also biomass and coal.
Potential for mixed low grade fuels (pet.
coke, coal, bitumen).