Gasification of torrefied Miscanthus x giganteus in an air-blown bubbling fluidized bed gasifier

Torrefaction is suggested to be an effective method to improve the fuel properties of biomass and gasification of torrefied biomass should provide a higher quality product gas than that from unprocessed biomass. In this study, both raw and torrefied Miscanthusxgiganteus (M x G) were gasified in an air-blown bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) gasifier using olivine as the bed material. The effects of equivalence ratio (ER) (0.18-0.32) and bed temperature (660-850 degrees C) on the gasification performance were investigated. The results obtained suggest the optimum gasification conditions for the torrefied MxG are ER 0.21 and 800 degrees C. The product gas from these process conditions had a higher heating value (HHV) of 6.70MJ/m(3), gas yield 2m(3)/kg(biomass) (H-2 8.6%, CO 16.4% and CH4 4.4%) and cold gas efficiency 62.7%. The comparison between raw and torrefied M x G indicates that the torrefied M x G is more suitable BFB gasification. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.