Experimental study of biomass waste gasification: Impact of atmosphere and catalysts presence on quality of syngas production

Abstract

The presented research results the gasification process of biomass waste (brewery spend grain, wheat straw, hay, pine sawdust). Experimental investigations focused on determining the influence of gasification agent (CO₂, steam, and steam and CO₂ mixture) and the presence of a solid catalyst (MgO∙CaO, TiO₂, CuO and SrO). Investigations were performed towards syngas production. A wide range of analyses and instrumental methods were used to determine the properties of gasification process products, including: GC, TGA, FTIR, SEM, BET. The main component of syngas obtained produced in atmosphere CO₂ and steam mixture was hydrogen. The H₂ concentration increased from 20% up to 44% in case of brewery spend grain. The presence of the catalyst in the gasification process favoured the tar cracking reaction. The amount of tar was reduced by more than 17% in case of brewery spend grain. As well as syngas composition was enriched with CH₄, H₂ and CO concentration.

Keywords: Biomass waste; Catalytic gasification; Syngas production.