Air–steam gasification of biomass in a fluidised bed: Process optimisation by enriched air

The effect of oxygen concentration in the gasification agent was studied by enriched–air–steam biomass gasification tests in a bubbling fluidised-bed gasification (FBG) plant. The oxygen content in the enriched air was varied from 21% (v/v, i.e. air) to 40% (v/v), aiming at simulating FBG where enriched air is produced by membranes. The stoichiometric ratio (ratio of actual to stoichiometric oxygen flow rates) and steam-to-biomass ratio (ratio of steam to biomass, dry and ash-free, flow rates) were varied from 0.24 to 0.38 and from 0 to 0.63, respectively. The tests were conducted under simulated adiabatic and autothermal conditions, to reproduce the behaviour of larger industrial FBG. The temperature of the inlet gasification mixture was fixed consistently at 400 °C for all tests, a value that can be achieved by energy recovery from the off-gas in large FBG without tar condensation. It was shown that the enrichment of air from 21 to 40% v/v made it possible to increase the gasification efficiency from 54% to 68% and the lower heating value of the gas from 5 to 9.3 MJ/Nm3, while reaching a maximum carbon conversion of 97%. The best conditions were found at intermediate values of steam-to-biomass ratio, specifically within the range 0.25–0.35. The enriched-air–steam gasification concept explored in this work seems to be an interesting option for the improvement of standalone direct air–blown FBG because it considerably improves the process efficiency while maintaining the costs relatively low as compared to oxygen-steam gasification.