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Biomass gasification is a versatile thermochemical process that can be used for direct energy applications and the production of advanced liquid and gaseous energy carriers. In the present work, the results are presented concerning the H2 production at a high purity grade from biomass feedstocks via steam/oxygen gasification. The data demonstrating such a process chain were collected at an innovative gasification prototype plant coupled to a portable purification system (PPS). The overall integration was designed for gas conditioning and purification to hydrogen. By using almond shells as the biomass feedstock, from a product gas with an average and stable composition of 40%-v H2, 21%-v CO, 35%-v CO2, 2.5%-v CH4, the PPS unit provided a hydrogen stream, with a final concentration of 99.99%-v and a gas yield of 66.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass gasification is a process known for its high potential in enabling the exploitation of residual biomass in the production of renewable electricity. At present one of the most favorable patterns from both an environmental and a sustainability point of view is air gasification coupled with an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) for decentralized production. In order to have the best performances of the ICE to be run with the produced gas, the required technical specifications on gas purity can be achieved at an appropriate level by means of wet scrubbing. In wet gas cleaning approach, stages based on organic liquids (e.g. biodiesel) and water can be jointly adopted for the removal of contaminants. In the present work preliminary results for the regeneration of the wastewater stream produced at a gasification plant whose gas cleaning is carried out with a purification train based on biodiesel and water scrubbing are presented. To this aim three different fungal strains were selected and tested for their bioremediation potential, i.e. Bjerkandera adusta, Arthrinium sp, and Pleurotus ostreatus. Laboratory tests gave an overall positive response on the effectiveness of wastewater treatment by Bjerkandera adusta and Arthrinium sp. thus demonstrating that these microorganisms are able to metabolize, and therefore remove, both aromatic molecules typical of tar produced in gasification processes, and esters of fatty acids constituting the biodiesel used for gas washing in the first stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]