Evaluation of cyclone gasifier performance for gasification of sugar cane residue - Part 1: gasification of bagasse

A method for avoiding excessive amount of alkali compounds and carryover particles in producer gas from gasification of sugar cane residue has been studied and evaluated. The cane sugar residue is gasified in a two-stage combustor at atmospheric pressure, where the first stage is a cyclone gasifier. The cyclone works as particle separator as well. This paper covers the results obtained for gasification of bagasse. Bagasse powder was injected into the cyclone with air and steam as transport medium. The gasification tests were made with two feeding rates, 39 and 52 kg/h. Seven experiments were conducted with the equivalence ratio being varied. The heating values of the producer gas are sufficient for stable gas turbine combustion. About 60-70% of the alkali input with fuel was separated from the producer gas in the cyclone. However the total alkali contents of the producer gas was found to be higher than in ABB Stal PFBC gas turbines and at least an order of magnitude higher than what is required by most gas turbine manufacturers for operation of a gas turbine. The carryover particles concentrations in the producer gas were found to be in the range of that for PFBC gas turbines, but higher than what is required by most gas turbine manufacturers for operation of a gas turbine, Samples studied with scanning electronic microscope give indication that most of the carryover particles are below 10 mum in size. Fly ash-melting tests have not shown any major ash melting up to 1200degreesC, but it was found that some of the particles entrained with producer gas were partially melted. Integrated experiments with a gas turbine need to be done for accurate evaluation of the possibilities to use the producer gas from the gasification of bagasse to run a gas turbine without problems of hard deposits and corrosion on the turbine blades. In part 2 of this two-part paper the results from cane trash gasification tests are reported. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.