Experimental research on hydrogen-rich syngas yield by catalytic biomass air-gasification over Ni/olivine as in-situ tar destruction catalyst

• Published in: Journal of the Energy Institute 2023-06, Vol.108, p.101263, Article 101263
• Main Authors: Tian, Ye, He, Dong, Zeng, Yi, Hu, Lian, Du, Junfeng, Luo, Zhiyuan, Ma, Wensheng, Zhang, Zhiwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomass; Fluidized bed; Gasification; Ni/olivine; Tar-free syngas
• ISSN: 1743-9671
• DOI: 10.1016/j.joei.2023.101263

This research focuses on investigating the air-gasification process of pine sawdust using a fluidized bed unit with Ni/olivine as an in-situ tar destruction catalyst. The goal is to eliminate tar production and obtain high-quality synthesis gas. Consequently, the effects of reaction conditions and catalyst properties on the producer gas composition, the lower heating value (LHV) of the yielded synthesis gas (syngas), char conversion efficiency (CCE), and cold gas efficiency (GE) are comprehensively explored. The conclusions indicate that higher temperatures favor the H2 and CO production and result in an evident decrease of CH4 and C2H4, which is responsible for the increasing gas LHV. The tar capture efficiency (TCE) increases by increasing the equivalence ratio (ER); however, a reverse trend obtains for gas LHV because of a significant decline in the combustible gas contents. The results also reveal that when using Ni/olivine as the bed material, GE reaches an optimum value of 72.4% at equivalence ratio (ER) of 0.21 and then lowers down with a further increase in ER to 0.39 due to the enhanced char combustion reaction. The tar yield (1.3–6.8 g/Nm3) significantly decreases with temperature, whereas H2 concentration (14.1–29.8 vol %), CCE (51.3–89.1%), GE (44.8–86.1%) and gas LHV (5.13–7.19 MJ/Nm3) promote at high temperature. Compared to raw-olivine, the lower heating value (LHV) of the producer gas slightly increases under the same conditions (T = 800 °C and ER = 0.21) when the bed material is Ni/olivine. The conclusions obtained help to provide reliable theoretical guidance for operating condition optimization of biomass catalytic air-gasification with Ni/olivine as bed material in a fluidized bed reactor. •Ni/olivine catalyst proposed to be employed for catalytic tar destruction during air-gasification of biomass.•Effects of Ni/olivine and operating variables on gas composition and performances were studied.•Ni/olivine showed superior catalytic performance than raw-olivine in terms of tar destruction.•The raw-olivine had a specific catalytic effect for tar elimination and gas production under given condition.