Improved gasification by catalytic destruction of tars in biomass-derived gases

Conference · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1988

OSTI ID:7150389

Mudge, L K; Gerber, M A; Wilcox, W A

Currently many biomass gasifiers generate a significant amount of tars in the product gases. These tars create problems with plugging in downstream equipment and with wastewater treatment. Partial oxidation of the gas stream in a secondary fluid bed of catalyst destroys the tars in biomass-derived gases while increasing the energy content of the product gas. Catalysts that remain active for tar destruction are used in the secondary reactor which is specially designed to promote removal of carbon from the catalyst surface while minimizing oxidation of combustible product gases such as CO and H/sub 2/. Gases containing tars were generated from wood by pyrolysis, steam gasification, and air/steam gasification in a fluid bed at 1340/degree/F (725/degree/C). Tars were destroyed and gas yields improved by catalytic partial oxidation in a secondary reactor. Improvement in gas yield depended on conditions in the primary reactor, which influenced the tar content of the wood-derived gases. Tars were converted to gases by partial oxidation in the secondary catalytic reactor at a temperature as low as 1110/degree/F (600/degree/C). Recent experimental results are presented in this status report. 9 refs., 6 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 7150389
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-16031; CONF-8806176-3; ON: DE88014082
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
090122* -- Hydrocarbon Fuels-- Preparation from Wastes or Biomass-- (1976-1989)
140504 -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Biomass Production & Conversion-- (-1989)
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400201 -- Chemical & Physicochemical Properties
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BIOMASS
CATALYST SUPPORTS
CATALYSTS
CATALYTIC EFFECTS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COPPER COMPOUNDS
COPPER OXIDES
DECOMPOSITION
EFFICIENCY
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FUELS
GASES
GASIFICATION
METALS
MOLYBDENUM COMPOUNDS
MOLYBDENUM OXIDES
NICKEL
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PYROLYSIS
PYROLYSIS PRODUCTS
PYROLYTIC GASES
PYROLYTIC OILS
REFRACTORY METAL COMPOUNDS
REMOVAL
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
SYNTHETIC FUELS
TAR
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
TUNGSTEN
WOOD
YIELDS