An innovative example of herb residues recycling by gasification in a fluidized bed

A utilization way of herb residues is designed to convert herb residues to gas fuel in industrial-scale by a circulating fluidized bed gasifier in this paper. The product gas is used in the production of Chinese medicine, and the heat of the flue gas from the boiler can be used in herb residues drying to realize the energy recycling and no herb residues discharge. The gasification characteristics of herb residues in the circulating fluidized bed of 300 kg/h were investigated for about 200 h. The results indicated that the gas composition and tar yield were affected by biomass flow rate, equivalence ratio (ER), moisture content and char circulating. The lower heating value of product gas was 4–5 MJ/m3 using herb residues as feedstock. When mean biomass flow rate was at 5.5 kg m−2 s−1 and ER at 0.35, the product gas reached a good condition with lower heating value of 4.89 MJ/m3 and cold gas efficiency of 62.36%. When the moisture content changed from 12.5% to 18.7%, the concentrations of H2, CO and CO2 changed from 4.66% to 6.92%, 11.23% to 10.15%, and 16.55% to 17.82% respectively, and the tar content in gas decreased from 15.1 g/m3 to 14.4 g/m3 when the moisture content increased from 12.5% to 15.4%. There are metal oxides in the ash of herb residues, especially CaO, MgO, K2O, Al2O3, and Fe2O3 which have obvious function on tar catalytic decomposition. The ash that attaches to the char particles can decrease the tar yield and improve the quality of gas after returning to the gasifier.

► A utilization way of herb residues was designed to produce gas fuel in industrial-scale.
► The product gas lower heating value of 4 to 5 MJ/m3 was achieved using herb residues.
► The moisture content in herb residues should be less than 20% for gasification.
► The metal oxides in the ash have catalytic effect on tar removal.