Effects of Biomass Feedstocks and Gasification Conditions on the Physiochemical Properties of Char

Kezhen Qian, Ajay Kumar, Krushna Patil, Danielle Bellmer, Donghai Wang, Wenqiao Yuan and Raymond L. Huhnke
Additional contact information
Kezhen Qian: Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Department, and the Biobased Products and Energy Center, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Ajay Kumar: Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Department, and the Biobased Products and Energy Center, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Krushna Patil: Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Department, and the Biobased Products and Energy Center, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Danielle Bellmer: Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Department, and the Biobased Products and Energy Center, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Donghai Wang: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
Wenqiao Yuan: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Raymond L. Huhnke: Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Department, and the Biobased Products and Energy Center, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA

Energies, 2013, vol. 6, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Char is a low-value byproduct of biomass gasification and pyrolysis with many potential applications, such as soil amendment and the synthesis of activated carbon and carbon-based catalysts. Considering these high-value applications, char could provide economic benefits to a biorefinery utilizing gasification or pyrolysis technologies. However, the properties of char depend heavily on biomass feedstock, gasifier design and operating conditions. This paper reports the effects of biomass type (switchgrass, sorghum straw and red cedar) and equivalence ratio (0.20, 0.25 and 0.28), i.e. , the ratio of air supply relative to the air that is required for stoichiometric combustion of biomass, on the physiochemical properties of char derived from gasification. Results show that the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas of most of the char were 1–10 m 2 /g and increased as the equivalence ratio increased. Char moisture and fixed carbon contents decreased while ash content increased as equivalence ratio increased. The corresponding Fourier Transform Infrared spectra showed that the surface functional groups of char differed between biomass types but remained similar with change in equivalence ratio.

Keywords: biomass char; biochar; gasification; fluidized bed; switchgrass; sorghum; eastern red cedar (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: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/6/8/3972/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/6/8/3972/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:6:y:2013:i:8:p:3972-3986:d:27770

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().