Comparison of a pilot scale gasification installation performance when air or oxygen is used as gasification medium 1. Tars and gaseous hydrocarbons formation

It is predictable that in the near future fossil fuels will continue to have the greatest contribution to energy production. Thus, it is necessary to develop and improve technologies that ensure low CO2 emissions. Oxy-gasification is one of such technologies, as the use of oxygen instead of air will allow solving the problem of nitrogen dilution effect in syngas and consequently will simplify the process of CO2 capture. On the other hand, the use of oxygen will increase investment costs, as an oxygen production unit will have to be added to the overall installation, and operation costs will also rise, due to the extra energy necessary for oxygen production. Apart from this, it is important to check the performance of installations initially designed to operate with air, when retrofitted to use oxygen and to analyse the effect that this change may have on syngas composition. In this work the effect of gasification agent on syngas composition, including tar content was determined during co-gasification of two types of coals (German and Polish) mixed with several wastes, like pine, olive bagasse and polyethylene (PE). Air and steam or oxygen and steam mixtures were used as gasification agent, keeping constant ER (equivalent ratio), that is to say, for each coal and wastes blend the oxygen flow was the same for both gasification agents. However, when oxygen was used, gas flows fed into the gasifier were lower than those used in presence of air, which means that residence times were higher than when air was used. Therefore, syngas presented lower hydrocarbons contents and higher CO2 concentrations, probably because there was more time for reactions to occur in presence of oxygen. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.