Biomass Gasification
Gasification of biomass is a very dynamic business in terms of progressive change. The feed to this process is biomass, which is considered to be anything that is tangible and naturally renewable, such as plant material, animal waste and remains, and anything other biological material. Biomass can also be produced from bacterial processes, and products from bacterial fermentation coupled with gasification can produce syngas suited for biofuels production, or synthetic products mainly comprising of biomass material. Biomass gasification can be utilized very efficiently in areas were plant growth may not be controllable, causing havoc on surrounding ecosystems or business environments.
For example, certain invasive species (which may grow all over the world: Lantana in Israel, Centaurea in Eastern Europe, Johnson grass in the Mediterranean area, etc.) can be in an area that a people want to inhabit because of population increase in their hometowns. It will be a tremendous hassle for these people to clear these areas by themselves (wasting energy, resources, time, and risking health in some areas/instances), then have to go through the process of utilizing this huge supply of plant (which is not feasible in some cases, as these plants may not be very user-friendly, or substantial enough to be made into some other material/tool), which in many cases will result in an environmentally unfriendly method of ridding themselves of this burden (slash and burn methods of clearing a land, landfilling and eventual flaring, or old-fashion piling and burning of the material). Instead, some companies use this opportunity to provide businesses with a feedstock for their biomass gasification processes.
Although the company now has the responsibility of handling this material, many of the government standards on emissions and the progressing technologies in this industry will help to ensure that: an environmentally friendly method of converting this material to useable energy (for these people and others, as well as jobs, economy stimulus, opportunity for political harmony, etc.) will be used rather than a rash and damaging, more crude method, and more importantly, this produced energy will help to fuel other processes that are vital to the surrounding area.
Much like any other gasification process, the feed will most likely go through some pretreatment process that will allow for a better conversion of the material. This will include: drying, shredding/cutting,grinding/pelletization, and even addition of acidic solutions.
Flow Diagrams
(Source: http://stlenergy.org/?attachment_id=461)
(Source: http://www.chuden.co.jp/english/corporate/press2006/1108_3.html)
(Source: http://www.ika.rwth-aachen.de/r2h/index.php/Thermochemical_conversion_of_biomass)
Equipment
Heat Recovery Steam Generator
Steam Turbine
Combustion Turbine
Water-Shift Reactor
Videos
Biomass Gasification
STAK 30K Biomass Gasifier Demo
References
- http://stlenergy.org/?attachment_id=461
- http://www.chuden.co.jp/english/corporate/press2006/1108_3.html
- http://www.ika.rwth-aachen.de/r2h/index.php/Thermochemical_conversion_of_biomass
- http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/coalpower/gasification/gasifipedia/4-gasifiers/4-1-4-1a_westinghouse.html
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPS9mPNT5t8
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YACc6GmOOho