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Abstract: Gasification of biomass using high-temperature agents (air/steam) has been proven to have many features superior to those of conventional gasification using low-temperature agents. In this work, an experimental fixed-bed gasifier is utilized to investigate the gasification of biomass using high-temperature air up to 1473 K. A mathematical model has been formulated for the prediction of the main chemical and physical processes and is used to study the influence of temperature, oxygen concentration and flow rate of the feed gas. Predicted gas species concentration profiles and their maximum values are in reasonable agreements with the measurements. The results show that: (a) When the temperature of feed gas is increased, a higher gasification rate, a higher ignition front rate, and higher molar fractions of fuel gases (CO, H2 and C m H n ), thus a higher LHV are obtained. (b) Increased oxygen concentration leads to higher peak values of the fuel gas concentrations, a higher gasification rate, and a larger ignition front rate. (c) Based on the air temperature, two distinct ignition modes are identified: the reaction-controlled and convective-controlled modes. (d) A critical air temperature exists, above which further preheating is no longer efficient if the purpose is to maximise the yield of gaseous products. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Pretreatment of biomass becomes more and more important due to the large scale application of biomass having low energy density. In this paper, steam exploded biomass pellets (Black pellets) and unpretreated biomass pellets (Gray pellets) were gasified with air and steam at an updraft HTAG (High Temperature Agent Gasification) unit. Decomposition characteristics of pellets were first analyzed with TGA (thermo gravimetric analysis). Early decomposition of hemicellulose and cellulose were seen with Black pellets around 241 °C and 367 °C respectively. Introducing CO2 led comparatively high mass loss rate with Black pellets. Gasification of Black pellets resulted in syngas with high CO and hydrocarbon contents while Gasification of Gray pellets resulted in high H2 content of syngas. LHV (lower heating value) of syngas was high around 7.3 MJ/Nm3 and 10.6 MJ/Nm3 with air gasification and steam gasification respectively. Even with significantly low syngas temperature with gasification of Black pellets, only slightly high total tar content was seen compared to that of Gray pellets gasification. Phenolic compounds dominated the tar composition. In general, steam gasification of Black pellets seems to be more feasible if syngas with high energy value is desired. If higher H2 yield is preferred, gasification of unpretreated pellets likely to be more attractive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] CaO shows a good capacity of CO2 adsorption at devolatilization stage of MSW. [•] CaO acted as a catalyst both in MSW devolatilization and char steam gasification. [•] Good dispersion and mobility of calcium in char were observed. [•] Catalytic mechanism during devolatilization and char gasification were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]