Synthesis Gas Production from Steam Gasification of Biomass-Derived Oil

Abstract

Bioresources comprised of over 220 billion oven-dry tonnes (about 4500 EJ) of annual production are potentially the world's largest sustainable source of energy. At present, technologies exist to pyrolyze biomass to produce a liquid product, namely, biomass-derived oil. This biomass-derived oil has found a variety of applications. In this investigation, biomass-derived oil (BDO) is gasified to synthesis gas and gaseous fuels. The gasification reaction of BDO was carried out at 800 °C under atmospheric pressure in an Inconell tubular fixed-bed down-flow microreactor using mixtures of CO2 and N2, and H2 and N2. Also, steam gasification was performed by feeding biomass-derived oil at a flow rate of 5 g/h along with steam (2.5−10 g/h) and nitrogen (30 mL/min) as a carrier gas. The gas product essentially consisted of H2, CO, CO2, CH4, C2, C3, and C4+ components. Composition of various gas components ranged as syngas (H2 + CO) from 75 to 80 mol % including 48−52 mol % H2, and CH4 from 12 to 18 mol %. Heating values of the product gas ranged between 460 and 510 Btu/Scf. The present study shows that there is a strong potential of making syngas, hydrogen, and medium-heating-value Btu gas from the steam gasification of biomass-derived oil.