CO2 gasification of biogenic fuels in a dual fluidized bed reactor system

Abstract

A 100 kWth dual fluidized bed steam gasification pilot plant has been developed at TU Wien to convert different types of biogenic fuels into a valuable product gas. In this paper, the conversion of different biogenic fuels in combination with the utilization of CO2 as alternative gasification agent was investigated in the mentioned pilot plant. For this purpose, five experimental campaigns were carried out aiming at the investigation of softwood as reference fuel, and rapeseed cake, bark and lignin as alternative fuels. Pure olivine as well as a mixture (90/10 wt%) of olivine and limestone were used as bed materials. The product gas compositions of the different biogenic fuels changed depending on the elemental composition of the biogenic fuels. Thus, a high amount of carbon in the fuel enhanced CO formation, whereas an increased content of oxygen led to higher CO2 contents. Additionally, the presence of alkali metals in the biomass ash favoured the production of CO. The addition of limestone enhanced the H2 and CO contents via the water gas shift reaction as well as steam and dry reforming reactions, but had no significant effect on tar contents. Overall, this paper presents the feasibility of the dual-fluidized bed gasification process of different biogenic fuels with CO2 as gasification agent.