Size-Segregated Particulate Matter from Gasification of Bulgarian Agro-Forest Biomass Residue

Ricardo Ferreira, Tsvetelina Petrova, Ana F. Ferreira, Mário Costa, Iliyana Inaydenova, Stela Atanasova-Vladimirova and Bogdan Ranguelov
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Ricardo Ferreira: IDMEC, Mechanical Engineering Department, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Tsvetelina Petrova: College of Energy and Electronics, Technical University of Sofia, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Ana F. Ferreira: IDMEC, Mechanical Engineering Department, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Mário Costa: IDMEC, Mechanical Engineering Department, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Iliyana Inaydenova: College of Energy and Electronics, Technical University of Sofia, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Stela Atanasova-Vladimirova: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
Bogdan Ranguelov: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: The main purpose of the present work was to evaluate the efficiency of the gasification process of three different types of agro-forest biomass residue (rapeseed, softwood, and sunflower husks) along with the characterization of size-segregated particulates’ emissions. The experiments were carried out in a drop tube furnace (DTF), using two different gasifying agents (O 2 /N 2 and O 2 /N 2 /CO 2 ) at atmospheric pressure and a constant temperature of 1000 °C. In focus was the effect of biomass and the gasifying agent on syngas composition (CO, H 2 , CH 4, and CO 2 ), cold gas and carbon conversion efficiency, and on the emissions of by-products, such as particulate matter (PM), known for having negative environmental and health impacts. The collected particulates were characterized by SEM/EDS and XPS analysis. The results reveal that: (i) the introduction of CO 2 increased the production of CO and CH 4 and syngas’ lower heating value (LHV), thus leading to higher cold gas and carbon conversion efficiency; (ii) CO 2 decreased the production of H 2 , leading to lower H 2 /CO ratio (between 0.25 and 0.9). Therefore, the generated syngas is suitable for the synthesis of higher hydrocarbons, (iii) CO 2 lowered the emissions of char (cyclone) particles but increased the overall PM 10–0.3 . Submicron size PM was the dominant fraction (PM 1–0.3 ) in O 2 /N 2 and (PM 1.6–0.3 ) in O 2 /N 2 /CO 2 . Unimodal PM size distribution was observed, except for sunflower husks gasification in O 2 /N 2 /CO 2 ; (iv) the SEM/EDS and XPS analysis confirmed that submicron-sized PM 1–0.3 contain above 80% of carbon associated to soot, due to incomplete oxidation, whereas in cyclone (char) particles, carbon decreased to about 50%. The SEM/EDS results showed that K and Cl are typical constituents of the submicron size PM, whereas the alkaline earth metals were detected mainly in fine and coarse particulates. Detailed analysis of the XPS (C1s) spectra showed that the most common oxygen-containing groups on the PM 1 surface were carbonyl and carboxyl.

Keywords: gasification; rapeseed; sunflower husk; softwood; particulate matter; syngas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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