Gasification of Biomass for Production of Syngas for Biofuel

Abstract

Steam gasification is used to produce a high-quality synthesis gas. In this work, the emphasis is on the composition of syngas production which can be further processed for the conversion of biomass to transport biofuels. Biomasses such as wood chips are heated in a gasification reactor to produce a mixture of gases, mainly CO, CO2, H2, and CH4. Flow sheets for steam gasification of woody biomass have been developed and the process have been simulated using Aspen Plus. The Peng-Robinson equation of state with Boston-Mathias is selected for the model. The model describes the hydrodynamic parameter and reaction kinetics modeling. Gasification temperature, steam to biomass ratio (STBR), and steam temperature are the most important operating parameters that are considered and studied to examine the gasifier performance. The impact of these process parameters on gasification is determined by sensitivity analysis. The simulation results show that a synthesis gas with a high content of H2 and CO is obtained for the optimized gasification process.