Experimental study on air-stream gasification of biomass micron fuel (BMF) in a cyclone gasifier

Based on biomass micron fuel (BMF) with particle size of less than 250 μm, a cyclone gasifier concept has been considered in our laboratory for biomass gasification. The concept combines and integrates partial oxidation, fast pyrolysis, gasification, and tar cracking, as well as a shift reaction, with the purpose of producing a high quality of gas. In this paper, experiments of BMF air-stream gasification were carried out by the gasifier, with energy for BMF gasification produced by partial combustion of BMF within the gasifier using a hypostoichiometric amount of air. The effects of ER (0.22–0.37) and S/B (0.15–0.59) and biomass particle size on the performances of BMF gasification and the gasification temperature were studied. Under the experimental conditions, the temperature, gas yields, LHV of the gas fuel, carbon conversion efficiency, stream decomposition and gasification efficiency varied in the range of 586–845 °C, 1.42–2.21 N m3/kg biomass, 3806–4921 kJ/m3, 54.44%–85.45%, 37.98%–70.72%, and 36.35%–56.55%, respectively. The experimental results showed that the gasification performance was best with ER being 3.7 and S/B being 0.31 and smaller particle, as well as H2-content. And the BMF gasification by air and low temperature stream in the cyclone gasifier with the energy self-sufficiency is reliable.