Open AccessEffects of temperature and equivalence ratio on mass balance and energy analysis in loblolly pine oxygen gasification
Author(s) -
Abdoulmoumine Nourredine,
Kulkarni Avanti,
Adhikari Sushil
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
energy science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.638
H-Index - 29
ISSN - 2050-0505
DOI - 10.1002/ese3.124
Subject(s) - wood gas generator , chemistry , char , carbon fibers , heat of combustion , tar (computing) , oxygen , analytical chemistry (journal) , pyrolysis , combustion , materials science , environmental chemistry , organic chemistry , coal , composite number , computer science , programming language , composite material
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of temperature and equivalence ratios ( ER s) on the distribution of products (primary gases carbon monoxide [CO], H 2 , CH 4 , CO 2 ), gas phase contaminants (tar, NH 3 , HCN, H 2 S, HCl), char, carbon, and inorganics), and energy flows on an oxygen‐blown bubbling fluidized bed gasifier system using loblolly pine. The goal and value of this study was to provide quantitative and qualitative performance analysis and data for process engineering and optimization of these fledgling biomass conversion systems. As temperature and ER increased, mass balance closures also increased from 94.73% to 96.72% for temperature and 89.82–96.93% for ER . In addition, the carbon closures ranged from 80.77% to 92.29% and from 79.09% to 87.13% as temperature and ER increased, respectively. Carbon conversion efficiency to gas product ranged from 72.26% to 84.32% as temperature increased and from 72.26% to 84.66% as ER increased. Carbon flow analysis showed that the char product streams retained 10.26–6.94% and 8.82–2.13% of the carbon fed to the gasifier as temperature and ER increased, respectively. The carbon content in the liquid condensate was minimal compared to the carbon in other product streams and accounted for less than 0.1% of the carbon input to the gasifier at all conditions. The cold and hot gas efficiencies increased from 56.12% to 67.45% and from 67.51% to 83.83% as temperature increased due to higher production of CO and hydrogen (H 2 ). In contrast, cold and hot gas efficiencies decreased from 63.85% to 52.84% and from 78.06% to 73.00% as ER increased, respectively, due to enhanced oxidation of gas products resulting in a net decrease in heating value.