Review and analysis of biomass gasification models

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2010.07.030Get rights and content

Abstract

The use of biomass as a source of energy has been further enhanced in recent years and special attention has been paid to biomass gasification. Due to the increasing interest in biomass gasification, several models have been proposed in order to explain and understand this complex process, and the design, simulation, optimisation and process analysis of gasifiers have been carried out. This paper presents and analyses several gasification models based on thermodynamic equilibrium, kinetics and artificial neural networks. The thermodynamic models are found to be a useful tool for preliminary comparison and for process studies on the influence of the most important fuel and process parameters. They have the advantage of being independent of gasifier design, but they cannot give highly accurate results for all cases. The kinetic-based models are computationally more intensive but give accurate and detailed results. However, they contain parameters that limit their applicability to different plants.

Section snippets

Introduction and objectives

As we face the problems of global warming and climate change, substantial research and development has focused on the use of biomass as an alternative to fossil fuels. The widespread availability of biomass has been widely recognised, as has its potential to supply much larger amounts of useful energy with fewer environmental impacts than fossil fuels [1].

Biomass can be converted into commercial products via either biological or thermochemical processes [2], [3], [4]. Biological conversion of

Biomass gasification principles and technologies

Gasification is partial thermal oxidation, which results in a high proportion of gaseous products (CO2, water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and gaseous hydrocarbons), small quantities of char (solid product), ash, and condensable compounds (tars and oils). Steam, air or oxygen is supplied to the reaction as an oxidising agent. The gas produced can be standardised in its quality and is easier and more versatile to use than the original biomass (e.g. it can be used to power gas engines and gas

Performance of biomass gasifiers

The performance of biomass gasifiers could be characterised by several parameters. Here, we will review two such parameters: producer-gas composition, which directly influences the heating value of the gas, and gasification efficiency.

The composition of the gas obtained from a gasifier depends on a number of parameters, such as fuel composition, gasifying medium, operating pressure, temperature, moisture content of the fuels, mode of bringing the reactants into contact inside the gasifier

Biomass gasification models

The efficient operation of a biomass gasifier depends on a number of complex chemical reactions, including fast pyrolysis, partial oxidation of pyrolysis products, gasification of the resulting char, conversion of tar and lower hydrocarbons, and the water–gas shift reaction. These complicated processes, coupled with the sensitivity of the product distribution to the rate of heating and residence time in the reactor, required the development of mathematical models. The main goals of these models

Conclusions

Models of several different types have been developed for gasification systems—kinetic, equilibrium and artificial neural networks. Unlike kinetic models that predict the progress and product composition at different positions along a reactor, an equilibrium model predicts the maximum achievable yield of a desired product from a reacting system. It also provides a useful design aid in evaluating the possible limiting behaviour of a complex reacting system that is difficult or unsafe to

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