The influence of different parameters on biomass gasification in circulating fluidized bed gasifiers

The mechanism of biomass gasification has been studied for decades. However, for circulating fluidized bed (CFB) gasifiers, the impacts of different parameters on the gas quality and gasifiers performance have still not been fully investigated. In this paper, different CFB gasifiers have been analyzed by multivariate analysis statistical tools to identify the hidden interrelation between operating parameters and product gas quality, the most influencing input parameters and the optimum points for operation. The results show that equivalence ratio (ER), bed material, temperature, particle size and carbon content of the biomass are the input parameters influencing the output of the gasifier the most. Investigating among the input parameters with opposite impact on product gas quality, cases with optimal gas quality can result in high tar yield and low carbon conversion while low tar yield and high carbon conversion can result in product gas with low quality. However using Olivine as the bed material and setting ER value around 0.3, steam to biomass ratio to 0.7 and using biomass with 3 mm particle size and 9 wt% moisture content can result in optimal product gas with low tar yield.