Green iron and syngas production via continuous solar-driven agricultural waste biomass gasification combined with iron(III) oxide reduction

Srirat Chuayboon and Stéphane Abanades

Energy, 2024, vol. 306, issue C

Abstract: The production of renewable synthetic fuels and chemicals from solar energy and agricultural waste biomass is considered. Solar thermochemical conversion processes offer a promising pathway to a sustainable fuel economy and green chemical industry. This study investigates the continuous solar-driven gasification of agricultural biomass (betel nut waste) combined with iron oxide (Fe2O3) reduction to produce carbon-neutral syngas and green metallic iron in a single process. A thermodynamic analysis of the system was initially conducted to predict the distribution of equilibrium products. Then, on-sun continuous processing was experimentally carried out under different operating conditions, including betel/Fe2O3 molar ratios (0.56–1.5) and temperatures (900–1200 °C) to evaluate the process feasibility and reliability. As a result, solar gasification of betel nut waste combined with Fe2O3 reduction performed exceptionally well with continuous reactant particles feeding, demonstrating a feasible pathway for producing green iron and high-quality syngas. The maximum syngas yield reached 63.3 mmol/gdry_betel, approaching its theoretical value, and high-purity Fe was simultaneously produced. The process demonstrated high efficiency, with maximum carbon conversion approaching 98 %, energy upgrade factor up to 1.26, and solar-to-fuel energy conversion efficiency up to 14.4 %, highlighting remarkable conversion performance of biomass and solar energy to chemicals.

Keywords: Sustainable biofuel; Green iron metallurgy; Concentrated sunlight; Carbothermal reduction; Waste and biomass valorization; Solar reactor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:306:y:2024:i:c:s0360544224022060

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2024.132432

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