Generation of hydrogen rich gas through fluidized bed gasification of biomass

The objective of this study was to investigate the process of generating hydrogen rich syngas through thermo chemical fluidized bed gasification of biomass. The experiments were performed in a laboratory scale externally heated biomass gasifier. Rice husk had been taken as a representative biomass and, steam had been used as the fluidizing and gasifying media. A thermodynamic equilibrium model was used to predict the gasification process. The work included the parametric study of process parameters such as reactor temperature and steam biomass ratio which generally influence the percentage of hydrogen content in the product gas. Steam had been used here to generate nitrogen free product gas and also to increase the hydrogen concentration in syngas with a medium range heating value of around 12 MJ/Nm(3). (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.