Influence of moisture content on cattle manure char properties and its potential for hydrogen rich gas production

Cattle manure with different moisture contents was carbonized under different temperatures to investigate the products distribution and cattle manure char's properties. And the cattle manure char's gasification performance was compared with cattle manure to explore the manure char's gasification potential. Results showed that temperature and moisture content exerted a strong influence on products distribution and cattle manure char properties. Manure char yield decreased and gas yield increased with increasing temperature. Moisture content of 56.20% was favor to improve the gas yield, while moisture content of 85.12% promote the liquid yield. Carbon content in manure char decreased as the moisture content increased, and it increased as temperature increased. The product distribution and elemental analysis results indicated that the C in cattle manure was converted to gas phase at 56.20% moisture content and to liquid phase at 85.12% moisture content. Steam gasification results showed that syngas and hydrogen yields from manure char increased by 1.79 and 2.27 times, respectively, comparing with gasification of cattle manure. And weight loss of manure char (52.00%) was lower than that of cattle manure (83.70%). These indicated that using cattle manure char as gasification feedstock can enhance the reduction of tars in the product gas. In addition, the H2 concentration from manure char reached 59.22%. Therefore, the cattle manure char is a good feedstock for producing hydrogen.