Experimental test on a novel dual fluidised bed biomass gasifier for synthetic fuel production

This article presents a preliminary test on the 150 kW(th) allothermal biomass gasifier at Mid Sweden University (MIUN) in Harnosand, Sweden. The MIUN gasifier is a combination of a fluidised bed gasifier and a CFB riser as a combustor with a design suitable for in-built tar/CH4 catalytic reforming. The test was carried out by two steps: (1) fluid-dynamic study; (2) measurements of gas composition and tar. A novel solid circulation measurement system which works at high bed temperatures is developed in the presented work. The results show the dependency of bed material circulation rate on the superficial gas velocity in the combustor, the bed material inventory and the aeration of solids flow between the bottoms of the gasifier and the combustor. A strong influence of circulation rate on the temperature difference between the combustor and the gasifier was identified. The syngas analysis showed that, as steam/biomass (S/B) ratio increases, CH4 content decreases and H-2/CO ratio increases. Furthermore the total tar content decreases with increasing steam/biomass ratio and increasing temperature. The biomass gasification technology at MIUN is simple, cheap, reliable, and can obtain a syngas of high CO + H-2 concentration with sufficient high ratio of H-2 to CO, which may be suitable for synthesis of methane, DME, FT-fuels or alcohol fuels. The measurement results of MIUN gasifier have been compared with other gasifiers. The main differences can be observed in the H-2 and the CO content, as well as the tar content. These can be explained by differences in the feed systems, operating temperature, S/B ratio or bed material catalytic effect, etc. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.