Fuel 89 (2010) 384391

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Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

Adiabatic xed bed gasication of dairy biomass with air and steam
Gerardo Gordillo 1, Kalyan Annamalai *,2
Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, TX 77843, United States

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 15 December 2008
Received in revised form 9 July 2009
Accepted 23 July 2009
Available online 5 August 2009
Keywords:
Coal
Biomass
Fixed bed
Manure
Gasication

Including dairy biomass (DB) as feedstock in gasication processes for locally based power generation
could mitigate the environmental impact from DB produced in large US farms (56 million dry tons per
year) and fossil-fuels emissions, since biomass is a CO2 neutral fuel. The current paper presents experimental results obtained from adiabatic, xed bed gasication of DB using air and steam as oxidizers.
The effect of equivalence ratio (ER) and steam to fuel ratio (S:F) ratio on temperature prole, gas composition (CO, CO2, H2, N2, CH4, and C2H6), gross heating value (HHV) and energy conversion efciency (ECE)
are discussed. The results show that the peak temperature (Tpeak), ECE, and CO decrease and H2 and CO2
increase with increase in ER; the increase in S:F at same ER increases H2, CO2, CH4, HHV, and ECE, and
decreases CO.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The steep rise in greenhouse emissions (CO2) generated by combustion of fossil-fuels and energy needs require the development
of alternative technologies using CO2 neutral biomass fuels [1].
The biomass fuels which include energy crops and wastes (municipal, farm, and animal) [2] could be used as a renewable feedstock
in gasication and combustion processes. The gasication processes require minimal fuel processing.
Gasication of biomass with pure steam, called steam reforming, is a process to produce H2 and CO2; however, this is an endothermic process which required heat input. In contrast, gasication
of biomass with airsteam produces a mixture of CO and H2 (rich
mixtures in H2) that, in theory, can be made adiabatically [2] and
[3]. The typical heterogeneous exothermic and endothermic reactions are:

Cs 1=2O2 ! CO; DHR 9205 kJ=kg of C

Cs O2 ! CO2 ;

R:I

DHR 32765 kJ=kg of C

R:II

Cs CO2 ! 2CO; DHR 14360 kJ=kg of C

R:III

Cs H2 O ! CO H2 ;

R:IV

DHR 10930 kJ=kg of C

The heat for the endothermic reactions of R-III and R-IV is provided by the exothermic reactions R-I and R-II. The gases produced
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ggordillo@tamu.edu (G. Gordillo), kannamalai@tamu.edu (K.
Annamalai).
1
Assistant professor on leave from the Andes University, Colombia; Ph.D. Student
and Graduate Research Assistant (GRA).
2
Paul Pepper Professor.
0016-2361/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2009.07.018

from gasication can be used for locally power generation or submitted to a secondary process to convert the CO to H2 by the
watergas shift reaction,

CO H2 O CO2 H2 ;

DHR 1470 kJ=kg of CO

R:V

The hydrogen produced via gasication (after separation from

CO2) can be used for energy generation with zero emission (future
generation of power called FutureGen) since combustion of hydrogen produces only steam.
About 21 million [4] cows are housed in concentrated dairyfarms in the US. Each animal can excrete 7.3 kg of DB per day
[5]. Therefore, the potential DB production for US is about 56 million tons of dry DB per year. Previous studied dealt with use of
manure or feedlot biomass (FB) in xed bed gasier using air as
oxidant medium [6]. The current paper focuses on the experimental results obtained from adiabatic xed bed counter-current gasication of dairy biomass (DB) using a mixture of air and steam as
oxidizer. The parameters investigated include the effect of equivalence ratio (ER) and the steam to fuel ratio (S:F) on gas composition, heating value of gas mixtures, and energy conversion
efciency (ECE). In USA, the lean and rich mixtures are described
using equivalence ratio (ER) which is dened as the ratio of stoichiometric air for complete combustion to the air supplied to the gasier [7] whereas stoichiometric ratio (SR) is used in European
Union (EU) that is the inverse of ER (SR = 1/ER); thus when
ER > 1, it represents the rich mixture and vice versa. On the other
hand, S:F is dened as the steam moles supplied to the gasier
per each empirical mole (see Table 1 for empirical chemical formulae) of DB supplied.

G. Gordillo, K. Annamalai / Fuel 89 (2010) 384391

Table 1
Ultimate and proximate analyses of DB.
Dry loss %
Ash %
VM %
FC %
C%
H%
N%
O%
S%
HHV (kJ/kg)
DAF HHV(kJ/kg)
Dry HHV (kJ/kg)
Emprical formulae
ER at which FC ? CO
Air to fuel ratio at which FC ? CO

25.26
14.95
46.84
12.95
35.27
3.1
1.9
19.1
0.42
12844
21482
17185
CH1.06N0.047O0.405S0.0045
5.8
0.87

2. Literature review
The three principal types of gasiers are uidized bed, entrained ow, and xed bed gasiers [8,9]. The main difference between these reactors is concerned with how the biomass and
oxidizer are moved in the reactor. For large-scale operations the
preferred and most reliable systems are uidized bed and entrained bed gasiers, while for small scale applications, a xed
bed gasier is well suited. Although, large-scale xed bed reactors
have lost part of their industrial market small scale xed bed gasiers, which have high thermal efciency and require minimal pretreatment of the supplied biomass, have maintained a commercial
interest especially, for in situ power generation.
Drying, pyrolysis, partial oxidation, and combustion occur in
different zones in a xed bed counter ow gasier [10]. Typically,
wet dairy biomass dries out at 100 C, and the volatile matter
(VM) is released at about 327 C [11]. The resulting char can react
with oxygen, steam, or CO2 in gasiers to produce partial oxidized
compounds and to provide the heat required in the pyrolysis process. At higher temperature (727 C) in the gasier, the tar cracks
to produce other compounds such as hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and steam. Further, a fraction of
the CO produced from char reacts with steam (R-V) to produce
CO2 and H2. In counter-current xed bed gasier the top of the
bed serve as drying zone. The dry biomass descends down to the
pyrolysis zone where the volatiles pyrolize to produce light gases,
tar, and char at about 327 C. Resulting char (xed carbon) descends to the reduction zone (O2 decient and high temperature)
and undergoes heterogeneous reactions R-III, R-IV, and (C(s) with
H2, (C(s) + 2H2 ? CH4, DHR = 6232 kJ/kg of C) [10] to produce
CO2, CO, H2, and CH4. The remaining char which descends from
reduction zone reacts with O2 (R-I and R-II) near the bottom of
the bed (combustion zone) to produce CO, CO2, and the heat required in the upper zones. Homogeneous reactions of the partially
oxidized products occur in the reduction and downstream zones.
The net enthalpy of the global airsteam gasication process
can be kept at zero (adiabatic gasication) by feeding the gasier
at the appropriate air/steam ratio to balance the heat required
for the endothermic reactions (R-IV, R-III) with heat released by
the exothermic reactions (R-I and R-II). Simplied models were
developed by the authors to study adiabatic gasication of Wyoming coal (WYC), Texas Lignite (TXL), FB, and DB fuels using a mixture of air and steam as oxidizer [12,13]. In this study, the effects of
modied equivalence ratio (ERM = stoichiometric oxygen atoms for
complete combustion/total oxygen atoms supplied to the gasier
throughout both air and steam) and the air to steam ratio
(ASTR = oxygen atoms supplied through air/total oxygen atoms
supplied to the gasier through both air and steam) on adiabatic
gasier temperature and gas composition were predicted.

385

Pattabhi Raman et al. [14] studied the effect of the temperature

on yield, gas composition, and energy recovery of uidized gasication of feedlot biomass (FB) with a mixture composed of steam
and gases produced by combustion of propane with air. The investigation was conduced under the following operating parameters:
reactor temperature ranging from 627 to 721 C and ow rate of
FB varying from 10 to 20 kg/h. To maintain the desired temperature and reduce oxygen concentration in the reactor, the propane
was burned and the produced gases were supplied to the gasier
bed. They concluded that higher temperatures improve gas yield
and improved energy recovery. A typical gas composition reported
at 707 C was: 14.0% H2, 11.7% CO, 4.3% CH4, 11.4% CO2, 1.7% C2H4,
and 0.4% C2H6. The energy recovery varied from 20% to 60%.
An earlier experimental study on xed bed-air gasication of
FB, WYC, and FB-WYC blends was reported by Priyadarsan et al.
2005 [6] but under transient conditions since ash was not disposed. The investigation was conduced using a small scale
(10 kW) gasier operated at normal pressure and almost near adiabatic temperature, for two mean particle sizes (9.4 and 5.5 mm)
and two air ow rates (1.48 and 1.97 kg/h). It was concluded that
the particle size does not affect the temperature prole and reported a gas composition to be about (710% of H2), (2730% of
CO), (13% of CH4), and (26% of CO2).
A modeling study was conduced by Young and Pian [15] on
non-adiabatic gasication of DB in a uidized system which is conventionally used for gasication of coal. The study investigated the
effect of the reactor temperature under the following operating
conditions: air preheated at 1227 C, pressure at 100 kPa, and variable air/fuel ratio. The results indicated energy conversion efciencies ranging from 65% to 85%, depending on the operating
conditions. The gas composition (estimated with equilibrium model for reactor temperature of 1400 C) was reported to be 26.9% CO,
6.1% CO2, 17.1% H2, and 49.9% N2.
In a uidized bed gasier, the temperature prole and the O2
concentration along of the gasier axis are almost at; therefore,
the H2 produced can get oxidized throughout the bed which results
in H2 poor mixtures. Additionally, gasication of DB biomass produces more H2 than gasication of coal because DB has more
hydrogen content and volatile matter content than Coal. Further,
Priyadarsan et al. [6] performed gasication of FB in xed bed
using only air under transient conditions (i.e. without ash disposal
system); hence H2 production was only about 7%. The objectives of
current study are to produce H2 rich mixtures under steady state
(i.e. with ash disposal system) with DB as fuel feedstock in xed
bed adiabatic reactor using air and steam and to study the effects
of ER and S:F ratio on peak bed temperature and composition of
gaseous products.

3. Experimental facility and procedure

The current experiments were performed using a modied
small scale (10 KW) batch type xed bed counter ow gasier
(FBCFG, Fig. 1). The gasier (72 cm tall) is divided into four sections
which are joined by using ring type anges of 12.7  35.6  50.8
mm ( in.  14 in.  20 in.). The gasier is constructed of castable
alumina refractory tube (inner and outer diameter of 13.9 cm
(6 in.) and 24.5 cm (10 in.), respectively) which ifs surrounded by
4.45 cm (13=4 in.) of insulating blanket in order to minimize heat
losses. The layer is then surrounded by a steel outer tube with an
inner diameter of 34.3 cm (13 in.). Ash disposal system was installed to maintain quasi-steady operation. A conical gyratory cast
iron grate drilled with a large number of 6.4 mm (1=4 in.) holes was
coupled to a pneumatic vibrator of variable frequency that maintains the grate in continuous vibration in order to dispose the
ash continuously from the bed. The rate of ash removed can be

386

G. Gordillo, K. Annamalai / Fuel 89 (2010) 384391

Fig. 1. Schematic Gasication Facility adopted from [16].

controlled by changing the vibrational frequency in the vibrator.

The ash from the plenum was periodically removed. The fuel is
supplied at the top of the gasier while the mixture of air and
steam is supplied at the bottom (plenum). The steam is generated
by a steam generator built with a cylindrical 4 in. internal diameter
vessel heated by a (1.2 kw) type tape heating element rolled
around of the vessel with variable power output (0.11.2 kw);
thus, the steam production rate can be controlled from 0.1 to
1.5 kg/h by changing the power supplied to the heater element.
The sampling unit is composed of two condensers cooled with
ice-cold water (0 C) to condense out the tar and the H2O in the
products and a lter system to retain the particulate material.
The temperature of the bed is measured every 60 s using K type
thermocouples (CrAl) placed at eight locations along the gasier
axis. The gas samples are analyzed by a mass spectrometer (MS)
at real time and continuously.
A normal experiment started with preheating the grate and the
combustion chamber using a propane torch placed under the grate.
When the temperature in the combustion chamber (2 cm above
the grate) reached 800 C (after 2 h), the torch was turned off
and biomass was added to the gasier. The addition continued until the bed height attained 17 cm; afterwards, the fuel port was
closed and the ows of steam and air were adjusted to the desired
experimental conditions. As the biomass was pyrolyzed and the
char was burned the bed height started decreasing and the ash
accumulated. Thus, biomass was added every 10 min and in
batches as required. In the earlier batch experiments reported by
Priyadarsan et al. [6], there was no ash disposal system; as such
temperature peak moved towards the bed surface due to ash accumulation at the bottom. In the current experiments the ash was
disposed off continuously and quasi-steady state was assured by
maintaining the peak temperature at the same location in the
ash disposal system. When the peak temperature achieved a steady state (1.0 h) the gas sampling unit was turned on and the gas
analysis was performed continuously during 20 min by the mass
spectrometer (MS).
The ow rate of dairy biomass was maintained constant at 1 kg/
h and the ow rates of air (0.562.26 SATP m3/h, Standard Ambient
Temperature and Pressure (SATP) per hour) and steam (0.19
0.43 kg/h) at 100 C were changed in order to obtain the desired
experimental conditions: ER = 1.6, 2.1, 3.2, 4.2, and 6.4 and
S:F = 0.4, 0.6, 0.7, and 0.8. An air drier was used to dry the air before
it was supplied to the gasier. The gasier was operated at 98 Pa

vacuum pressure during all the experimentation. Temperatures

along the gasier were monitored at every 60 s by type K thermocouples located at 0.02, 0.04, 0.07, 0.13, 0.20, 0.24, and 0.28 m
above of the grate. Samples were taken at the top of the gasier
at the rate of 0.14 SATP m3 h1 and conditioned by the sampling
unit in order to remove tar and particulate material. The mole fractions of CO2, CO, CH4, C2H6, O2, H2, and N2 were measured every
10 s by the MS.
Ultimate and proximate analysis (on an as received basis) of the
DB used as feedstock in the current gasication experiments are
presented in Table 1. Using as received analysis, dry, and dry ash
free (DAF) values are calculated and reported. Also, empirical
chemical formulae, ER and the air to fuel ratio (A:F) at which all
FC content in DB can be oxidized to CO (R-I) under ideal conditions
are presented in Table 1 for gasication of DAF DB. Then at
A:F < 0.87 (or ER > 5.8) there is insufcient oxygen for the reaction
(R-I) and hence, incomplete conversion of char, which means that
some char will be left as byproduct. On the other hand, at ER < 5.8
(or A:F > 0.87) there is more oxygen than that required for the conversion of all FC to CO and hence the FC could be gasied partly to
CO2 and CO. However, in gasication processes where the reaction
time is nite, incomplete conversion of char can be possible even
with ER < 5.8.
4. Results and discussion
In this section, experimental results on bed temperature prole
and gas composition are presented. To estimate the uncertainty in
gas composition, standard deviation was determined for the data.
The uncertainty for each gas was calculated as the ratio between
the standard deviation and the average value measured. Additionally, the uncertainty of the temperatures was estimated as the ratio
between the device uncertainty (1.5 C) and the measured value.
In general, the gas composition values uctuated within 15% and
the temperature values within 0.55% of the average value.
4.1. Temperature proles
Temperature proles measured every 60 s along of gasier axis
during a typical gas analysis are presented in Fig. 2a for a typical
experiment at ER = 3.2 and S:F = 0.8. It is apparent that the temperature prole achieves almost steady state in the last 10 min;

387

G. Gordillo, K. Annamalai / Fuel 89 (2010) 384391

(a)

700

600

1 min

5 min

10 min

15 min

19 min
Temperature (c)

500

400

300

200

100

0
0

10

20

30

Distance above of the grate (cm)

(b) 1000

(c)

950

ER=2.1

800

ER=3.2

700

ER=4.2

1098

S : F =0.4
S : F = 0.6

998

1015

S : F = 0.7

1000
Peak Temperature (C)

Temperature (C)

900

ER=6.4
600

1200

ER=1.6

547

500
400
300

S : F = 0.8
S;F=0

800

600
519
400

200

200

100
0
0

10

15

20

25

0
1.50

2.50

Distance above of grate (cm)

3.50

4.50

5.50

6.50

ER

Fig. 2. (a) Temperature prole during a typical gas analysis at ER = 3.2 and S:F = 0.8, (b) temperature prole along of gasier axis for several ERs and S:F = 0.7 and (c) peak
temperature prole vs. ER for several S:F ratios.

therefore, it is appropriate to assume steady state conditions during the last 10 min of each gas analysis. The temperature proles
discussed in this paper correspond to the average measured during
the last 10 min. As discussed before, in a xed bed gasier, the oxidation of char (heterogeneous oxidations) occurs near to the bottom of the bed where mostly char reacts with the oxygen and
steam to produce CO, CO2, H2, and the heat required for driving
the gasication process. Due to the fact that under gasication conditions char oxidation of large particles is almost diffusion controlled, the char oxidation rate is dependent upon the availability
of O2 in the gas stream. The temperature in the combustion zone
(Tpeak) depends upon of the concentrations of O2, H2O, and CO2.
Above the combustion zone, the temperature decreases since oxygen concentration is negligible and most of the reactions occurring
there are endothermic. Below the combustion zone the temperature is lower because it corresponds to ash temperature. It is
apparent from Fig. 2a that the peak temperature occurred at
5 cm above of the grate indicating no ash accumulation.
Increase of ER, at xed S:F ratio implies a decrease in the oxygen
supplied; thus, heat generation due to char oxidation decreases
resulting in lesser Tpeak and hence results in lower temperature
prole (Fig. 2b). Due to the presence of oxygen at the bottom of

the bed, the peak temperature occurs near the bottom. The temperature of the particle under the assumption of negligible char
steam reaction and diffusion controlled combustion can be derived
as [7]:

cp T p  T 1
B
hC

where hc = hc,I for CO, hc = hc,II for CO2 produced, Tp = particle temperature, B = {YO21/mO2}, mO2 = 1.33 for CO, 2.33 for CO2 produced,
YO21 = oxygen mass fraction, and cp specic heat of the gases. In
particular, for ER = 1.6 and S:F = 0.7 the peak temperature measured
is about 950 C (Fig. 2b); however, this value is lower compared to
(1191 C) obtained with the Eq. (1) (cp of air = 1.15 kJ/kg K, cp of the
steam = 2.3 kJ/kg K, cp of mixture = 1.28 kJ/kg K, YO21 = 0.203, and
hc,I = 9204 kJ/kg). The measured Tpeak is lower than the calculated
due to the following reasons: (i) the combustion with O2 may not
be under diffusion control, (ii) there may be endothermic steam
carbon reaction both of which will lower the temperature. The
steam carbon reaction is typically kinetics controlled under the
temperatures encountered in xed beds and hence simple explicit
results for Tpeak are not possible. However, recently one of the
authors (KA) proposed char combustion model including two

388

G. Gordillo, K. Annamalai / Fuel 89 (2010) 384391

heterogeneous reactions R-III and R-IV, and two homogeneous reactions CO + 1/2O2, H2 + 1/2O2 for the double lm model (DFM) and
heterogeneous reactions only for the single lm model (SFM). Simple results are possible only for diffusion limited combustion for
both SFM and DFM [17] but not for kinetics cases. Details are not
included here since reaction R-IV in xed bed reactor will not occur
under diffusion control.
Fig. 2c shows the effect of change in ERs and S:F ratio on the
peak temperature (combustion temperature zone). Also are presented two Tpeak (1098 and 998 C) obtained for gasication with
only air at ER = 2.1 and ER = 3.2. At lower ERs, the effect of the
S:F ratio is higher. For instance, at ER = 1.6 the peak temperature
difference between the curves of S:F = 0.4 and 0.80 is 185 C while
at ER = 6.4 the difference between the same curves is 91 C only
since oxygen availability is limited. The curves from Fig. 2c suggest
that at constant S:F, the peak temperature is affected almost linearly by changes on the ER. Increased S:F causes the Tpeak to decrease. This can occur due to (i) decreased oxygen concentration,

(ii) change in the cp of the mixture, (iii) regimes of combustion:

kinetics vs. diffusion controlled, and (iv) steamchar reaction.
At ER = 2.1, the peak temperature for gasication with air only
is 147 C (15.45%) higher as compared to that of gasication with
airsteam at ER = 2.1 and S:F = 0.4 while at ER = 3.2, the difference
in peak temperature between gasication with air and gasication
with airsteam is 132 C (15.24%). In general, for the range of
operating conditions (ER and S:F) investigated the Tpeak ranged between 519 (ER = 6.4, almost pure pyrolysis) and 1015 C (ER = 1.6).

4.2. Gas composition results

The results on gas analysis obtained From MS for a typical
experiment (ER = 4.2 and S:F = 0.4) are shown in the Fig. 3a as a
function of the time.
The data on gas composition have a cyclic dynamic behavior in
the vicinity of an average value. However, at rst glimpse, it

(a)
60
N2

Dry basis moles (%)

50

Average N2 =
56 2 .31

H2
CO2
CO

40

CH4
C2H6

30

Average H2 =
18.62 3.2

Average CO2 =
15.7 0.9

Linear (N2)
Linear (H2)
Linear (CO2)

Average CO=
8.66 1.53

Linear (CO)

20

10

Average C2H6=0.31 0.035

Average CH4=0.6 0.08

0
0

10

12

14

16

18

20

Time (min)

(b) 25
H2

20

CO2

Dry basis mole (%)

CO2

CO
H2
CH4

15

C2H6

10

CO
5

C2H
0
1.50

2.50

CH4

3.50

4.50

5.50

6.50

ER
Fig. 3. (a) Gas composition vs. time for a typical experiment at ER = 4.2 and S:F = 0.4, (b) gas composition for several ERs and S:F = 0.7.

389

G. Gordillo, K. Annamalai / Fuel 89 (2010) 384391

appears that the average is almost constant during the test period.
Fig. 3a shows the mole fraction of N2, H2, CO2, CO, CH4, and C2H6
(on a dry basis) along with the average mole fraction and the standard deviation (STDEV) of the data. The data on H2 presents the
major standard deviation (3.2%) about of the average value of
18.62% whereas the data on CH4, CO2, and C2H6 show the lower
standard deviation. The data on CO shows a standard deviation
of 1.53%. As discussed earlier, in general for the set of experiments
discussed in this paper, the composition value of the gases analyzed uctuated within 15% of the average value.
As discussed before, at constant S:F, increasing the ER decreases
the O2 supplied with the air at the bottom which implies decreasing Tpeak in the combustion zone; further H2O concentration increases. Then, as the temperature is lowered, the reaction R-II is
favored [15]. CO2 increases at lower temperatures. More production of CO2 implies consumption of more O2 via CO2, thus, less
O2 is consumed via CO and hence less CO is produced (Fig. 3b).
Also, at constant S:F, increased ER increases steamair ratio (S:A)
and the reactions of char take place in a H2O rich mixture which
favors the heterogeneous reaction of char with H2O to produce
H2 along with homogeneous reactions of CO and H2O (R-V). The
wet gassteam oxidation reduces CO and increases CO2 and H2.
Thus CO2 and H2 increase along with decrease in CO. On the other
hand, the concentrations of CH4 and C2H6 were lower (0.43 <
CH4 < 1.75 and 0.2 < C2H6 < 0.7) as compared with those of other
gases and were almost not affected by the ER.
The effect of the ER and S:F on the concentrations of H2, CO, and
CO2 are presented in Fig. 4a,b and c. At constant ER, higher S:F ratios signify more steam available to react with char to produce CO

Dry basis H2 mole (%)

25

S:F=0.7

20

20.58

S:F=0.4
S:F=0.6
13.48

10
S:F=0.4
S:F=0.6

14

SF=0.7

12

S:F=0.6

11.63

10

9.22

S:F=0.7

S:F=0.8

S:F=0.4

S:F=0.6
SF=0.7

3.50

4.50

5.50

6.50

4.77

S:F=0.8

2.50

6.38

S:F=0.8

1.50

S:F=0.4

25.45

21.22

15

The heat content of the combustible gases is computed on a dry

tar free basis. The energy density (kJ/m3) of the gases is represented in Table 2 for several ER and S:F ratios. Increased ER or
S:F tends to increase the energy density of the gases; this is due
principally to the increase in the production of hydrocarbons
(HC) and H2. At constant S:F, increasing the ER tends to increase
the HHV, due to more H2 and HC, until certain ER beyond which

(b) 16

30
S:F=0.8

4.3. HHV of gases and energy conversion efciency

Dry basis CO mole (%)

(a)

and H2 (steamchar reaction) in the high temperature reducing

zone immediately above the combustion zone (i.e. O2 decient)
near the bottom of the bed. The CO produced by the steam reforming reaction reacts with the surplus steam (shift reaction) in the
upper zone (reduction) to produce more H2 and CO2; hence, more
C atoms contained in the DB result in CO2. It is evident from the
graphs of Fig. 4b that lower ERs have a lower effect on the CO production compared to higher ERs. Also, the results show that at constant ER, changing the S:F ratio affects the production of H2 more
than the production of CO. For instance, at ER = 1.6 changing the
S:F from 0.4 to 0.8 increases the production of H2 by 57.5% but decreases the production of CO by only 26.2% (Fig. 4a and b). Since
decrease in CO% is less than increase in H2% then there must be
heterogeneous steamchar reaction resulting in production of H2.
This is also evident from lowered Tpeak. Under the operating conditions discussed (1.6 < ER < 6.4 and 0.4 < S:F < 0.8), the CO ranged
from 4.77% to 11.73%, H2 from 13.48% to 25.45%, CO2 from
11% to 25.2%, CH4 from 0.43% to 1.73%, and C2H6 from 0.2% to
0.69%.

1.50

2.50

3.50

(d)
kg of dry tar free gases/ kg of DAF DB

(c) 30
25

Dry basis CO2 mole (%)

4.50

5.50

6.50

ER

ER

20

15

10

S:F=0.4
S:F=0.6

S:F=0.7
S;F=0.8

6.00

S:F=0.4
S:F=0.6

5.00

S:F=0.7
4.00

S:F=0.8

3.00

2.00

1.00

1.50

2.50

3.50

4.50
ER

5.50

6.50

0.00

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

5.5

6.5

ER

Fig. 4. (a) Hydrogen% vs. ER for several S:F ratios, (b) carbon monoxide% vs. ER for several S:F ratios, (c) carbon dioxide% vs. ER for several S:F ratios and (d) mass of gases
produced per kg of DAF DB on a dry tar free basis for gasication of pure DB.

390

G. Gordillo, K. Annamalai / Fuel 89 (2010) 384391

Table 2
Energy density of the gases (kJ/standard temperature and pressure (SATP) m3) for
several ERs and S:Fs.
S:F (mole ratio)

ER
1.6
3280
3268
3762
3934

0.4
0.6
0.7
0.8

2.1
3473
3835
3955
4116

3.2
3787
4402
3993
4291

4.3
3648
4245
4217
4378

6.4
3666
4032
4079
4585

the HHV starts to decrease. The energy density of the gases is

strongly affected by the production of hydrocarbons such as CH4
and C2H6 which have a high HHV as compared to the other gases
(CO and H2). For example, the HHV or energy density of the CH4
is 36264 kJ/SATP m3 while the HHV of CO and H2 are 11550 and
11700 kJ/SATP m3, respectively. Although, the HHV of the H2
(141800 kJ/kg) on mass basis is very high, its energy density is almost comparable to that of CO (only 1.08% higher) due to its low
density (0.0857 kg/m3). At constant ER, increased S:F increases
the H2/CO ratio of the species produced (Fig. 4a and b), which implies increasing the energy density slightly. For the set of operating
condition investigated the HHV of the gases ranged between 3268
and 4285 kJ/SATP m3, which correspond to a range between 9% and
12.6% of the energy density of the CH4 on volume basis.
Even although, the energy density of the gases give an idea of
the energy content of the gases produced, it does not give information about the degree of energy conversion from biomass gasied.
The fraction of energy recuperated in the gasier can be calculated
with Eq. (2).

gGas;E

HHVGases
NFuel  HHVFuel Nsteam  18k 4:18373  298

where, NFuel and Nsteam correspond to the moles of fuel and steam
supplied, respectively to the gasier by each normal m3 of dry product gases and k is the latent heat of steam. HHVFuel is the gross heat
value (kJ/kmol of DAF fuel) of the fuel and gGas,E is the (ECE).
Ultimate analyses of tar samples collected in the sample unit were
obtained and were used to derive an empirical formula of tar
(CH2O0.48N0.064S0.0017). Because it was impossible to measure the
mass of tar and H2O produced during the experiments, the volumetric ow of gases, required for the calculation of the energy recovery,
was estimated by mass balance using tar and gas compositions and
with the knowledge of the char produced and the ows the air and
steam. Table 3 presents the (ECE) estimated by atom balance and
assuming gas composition on a dry tar free basis whereas Fig. 4d
presents the yield of gases estimated using atom balance.
Although, the energy density of the gases tends to increase with
increased ERs, the ECE decreases, due to the fact that increased ERs
produce more mass of tar and char but less mass of gases per kg of
DB gasied. For the range of the operating conditions studied the
ECE ranged from 0.24 to 0.69; the remaining fraction corresponds
to the energy in char, tar, and sensible heat of gases leaving the
gasier. The energy recovery discussed in this paper is a little higher than that presented by [13] for non-adiabatic uidized bed gas-

Table 3
Energy conversion efciency (ECE) for several ERs and S:Fs estimated by tom balance.
S:F (mole ratio)
0.4
0.6
0.7
0.8

ER
1.6
0.65
0.60
0.69
0.69

2.1
0.56
0.59
0.60
0.64

3.2
0.45
0.53
0.47
0.53

4.2
0.33
0.41
0.41
0.44

6.4
0.24
0.27
0.29
0.35

ication of FB (0.200.60). This agrees with the fact that in a xed

bed gasier the gases leave the gasier at a lower temperature as
compared to that of gases leaving a uidized bed gasier. Lower
sensible heat of gases leaving the reactor implies higher gasier
efciency, and hence more energy recovered in the gases.
5. Conclusions
(a) The Tpeak in the combustion region lies between 3 and 5 cm
above of the grate and depends upon of the concentration of
O2, H2O, and CO2 in the combustion zone. Increased ER and
S:F ratios decrease the Tpeak. Operating at ER > 6.4 can lead
to lower peak temperatures than that required for the combustion of char (427 C); and hence, the process becomes
pure pyrolysis which requires heat input. In general, the
Tpeak ranged between 519 and 1015 C.
(b) Increased ER and S:F ratios produce H2, and CO2 richer mixtures but poorer mixtures in CO. The effect of the ER and S:F
on the moles% of CH4 and C2H6 is almost negligible. For the
operating condition discussed, the molar composition (dry
tar free basis) of the product gas consisted of (4.77
11.73%) CO, (13.4825.45%) H2, (1125.2%) CO2, (0.43
1.73%) CH4, and (0.200.69) C2H6.
(c) In general, the effect of the S:F ratio on HHV of the gases is
more important than that of the ER. Although, increased
ER produces gases with higher gross heating value, the
energy recovery decreases with increased ERs due to higher
tar and char production. The energy density of the gases ranged between 3268 and 4285 kJ/SATP m3 while the ECE ranged from 0.24 to 0.69.
Most of the DB contains dirt and moisture. Thus there are problems in using it as cored fuel in pulverized fuel red boilers, due
to energy intensive drying and grinding high ash, brous and low
quality DB and the transportation cost from the feed yards to the
plant. The proposed gasication technology makes the low quality
DB to be a viable feedstock for onsite small scale gasication. The
ash with unburnt carbon from gasier can serve as soil enrichment
and returning the dirt back to soil. Compared to pure air gasication, the increase in steam:fuel ratio at xed ER increases the
HHV along with increase in energy conversion efciency; another
benet is the production of H2 as high as 28%. Pure pyrolysis for
wet DB is another alternative technology for producing liquid
and gaseous fuels and the left over char could be returned back
to soil.
Acknowledgement
The nancial support from DOE Golden, CO under Grant # DEFG36-05GO85003 is gratefully acknowledged.
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