Effects of biochemical composition on hydrogen production by biomass gasification

Gasification of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and three types of real biomass was conducted using an updraft fixed-bed reactor to investigate the effects of temperature (in the range of 920-1220 °C) on the yield and chemical composition of the produced syngas. The experimental results showed that the gasification products of cellulose and hemicellulose were similar to each other, but they were different from those of lignin; it is likely due to the difference in volatile compounds. Cellulose and hemicellulose can be gasified more rapidly producing more CO and CH4 and less H2 and CO2 than lignin, and the real biomass fell in between. Biomass with more lignin produced more hydrogen than others. These differences were resulted from the relative amount of lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose in the biomass. Linear superposition method was used to simulate the gasification characteristics of real biomass and it showed a certain linear correlation between the simulation and experimental data.