Investigation of nitrogenous compound formation in biomass gasification

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:135717

Ishimura, D M; Masutani, S M; Kinoshita, C M ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States); and others

Gasification of high nitrogen content biomass can produce large quantities of nitrogenous compounds that pose potential risks to the environment and human health, and can compromise the performance of related energy conversion processes. Few studies of nitrogenous compound formation in gasification have been reported and little is known about the evolution of fuel-bound nitrogen from biomass fuels. To address these deficiencies, Leucaena, a nitrogen-fixing tree and possible energy crop with 2-3% nitrogen content, was gasified in a bench-scale, indirectly-heated, fluidized bed gasifier to determine the effects of operating conditions on nitrogeneous compound formation. Gas chromatography, and ion-selective electrode and chemiluminescence analyzers were used to measure concentrations of major gas species (e.g., CO, CO{sub 2}, H{sub 2}, CH{sub 4}, and N{sub 2}), NH{sub 3}, HCN, NO{sub x}, and nitrogeneous tar species as functions of gasifier temperature (700{degrees}C to 900{degrees}C), equivalence ration (0.2 to 0.4), and residence time (2.3 to 6.7 s). Nitrogeneous compounds were inventoried, and fundamental conclusions, based on the findings of these tests, are proposed.

• OSTI ID: 135717
• Report Number(s): CONF-9410176--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AMMONIA
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BIOMASS
GASIFICATION
HYDROCYANIC ACID
NITROGEN COMPLEXES
NITROGEN OXIDES
SYNTHESIS