GASIFICATION AND PYROLYSIS

Gasification - A process in which biomass or waste

is heated in a vessel to produce a gas (syngas) that
can then be used as a fuel to produce electricity or
as an intermediate for chemicals or fuels
production
Pyrolysis - A process in which biomass or waste is
heated in a vessel to form a char and a gas and/or
liquid that can be used to produce electricity or
other fuels

1
 What are gasification and pyrolysis?
• They are Advanced Thermal Technology (ATT)
processes
• They are two different processes for turning
biomass and residual wastes into an energy
resource
• With options for turning waste and biomass
into power, fuels, or chemicals

2
How do they work?

3
 Chemical Reactions
• The dehydration or drying process occurs at
around 100 °C.
• The pyrolysis (or devolatilization) process occurs
at around 200–300 °C.
• The combustion process occurs as the volatile
products and some of the char react with oxygen
to primarily form carbon dioxide and small
amounts of carbon monoxide C + O2  CO2
• The gasification process occurs as the char reacts
with steam to produce carbon monoxide and
hydrogen C+ H2O  H2 + CO
4
 Chemical Reactions
• The reversible gas phase water-gas shift
reaction reaches equilibrium very fast
• CO + H2O  CO2 + H2
• A limited amount of oxygen or air is
introduced into the reactor to allow some of
the organic material to be "burned" to
produce carbon dioxide and energy
• 4CO + 2H20  CH4 + 3CO2

5
 PROCESSES
• Counter-current fixed bed ("up draft")
gasifier
• Co-current fixed bed ("down draft")
gasifier
• Fluidized bed reactor
• Entrained flow gasifier
• Plasma gasifier
6
 What are the benefits?
• Waste or biomass transformation into useful products
• Contributes to meeting renewable targets
• Highly flexible technology
1. Enables production of renewable heat and power,
fuels, gases such as hydrogen, and/or chemical
intermediates
2. Processes a wide range of feedstocks
3. Deployable in a wide range of scales, footprints, or
throughputs
• Potential for high conversion efficiency

7
 What are the benefits?
• Environmental benefits
1. Potential for more power generation per tonne
waste
2. Potential for lower greenhouse gas emissions
3. Reduces the amount of waste going to landfill
4.Low potential for dioxin formation
5. By-products which can potentially be used for
beneficial purposes
• Security of supply

8
 APPLICATIONS
• Heat: Gasifiers offer a flexible option for thermal
applications, Heating values of syngas are generally
around 4–10 MJ/m3.
• Electricity: Currently Industrial-scale gasification is
primarily used to produce electricity from fossil fuels
such as coal
• Combined heat and power: 250–1000 kWe and new
zero carbon biomass gasification plants have been
installed in Europe that produce tar free syngas from
wood and burn it in reciprocating engines connected to
a generator with heat recovery.

9
 APPLICATIONS
• Transport fuel: Diesel engines can be operated on
dual fuel mode using producer gas. Diesel
substitution of over 80% at high loads and 70–
80% under normal load
• Renewable energy and fuels: If the syngas is
clean enough, it may be used for power
production in gas engines, gas turbines or even
fuel cells, or converted efficiently to dimethyl
ether (DME) by methanol dehydration

10
 The gasification and pyrolysis
future is bright!
• 60 projects with planning permission
submitted that have planning permission, or
are being built that will
1. have a capacity of 0.5GWe
2. divert 5 million tonnes waste from landfill
• These projects could also supply 0.5GWth if
heat grids were available in the same way as
they are in other parts of Europe

11
 REFERENCE BOOKS
• Gas Generator Project History of the
Gasogene technology
• Biomass gasification, pyrolysis and
torrefaction by Prabir Basu
• Gasification of waste materials by
Simaho Cuto
• Biomass thermal conversion by
Thomas B Reed
• Pyrolysis and Gasification by K.Maniatis
12