An Experimental Research On Catalytic Gasification Of Biomass Powder

With the more demand for energy and the less fossil fuel they become, finding a new energy that can be used persistently is to be the key mission for us today. Biomass Energy as renewable energy has been paid more attention in the countries all over the world. To study, exploit and utilize the biomass energy has become an important task for all the countries in the world, too.The key question is converting biomass energy to the better status of energy if biomass will become the substitute for mineral fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas. As a clean energy, hydrogen will perform an important function in the energy structural in the future. Biomass, as the carrier of hydrogen, could be made use of for hydrogen rich gas production by thermochemistry conversion, which is a kind of advanced technology. With this method, sustainable utilization of biomass could be achieved, which is beneficial to the environmental protection.In this dissertation, the ordinary biomass, such as phoenix leaves, was comminuted into powder. The structural formula of phoenix leaves was indicated and the certain characteristics of biomass power were obtained through analyzing the proximate and ultimate component. A novel technology was adopted, which integrates steam gasification with catalytic gasification in one reactor. The characteristics of biomass powder steam catalytic gasification for hydrogen rich gas production were studied in a series of experiments.The effects of reactor temperature (700℃～900℃), the size of biomass powder particle (﹤1mm), the ratio of steam to biomass (0～2.67), steam pressure and dolomite on gas composition, hydrogen yield, gas yield, steam decomposition and lower heat value of fuel gas were investigated. Under the experimental conditions examined, the maximal volume of hydrogen reaches to 52.47%, hydrogen yield ranges between 0.12m3/kg and 0.90m3/kg biomass, the fuel gas yield ranges between 0.59m3/kg and 1.72m3/kg biomass and the lower heat value of fuel gas ranges between 8795 kJ/m3 and 21112kJ/m3. The results show that higher temperature contributes to more hydrogen production, but lower heat value of fuel gas. The size of biomass powder particle also has influenced gas composition and gas yield. The introduction of steam improves gas quality, but excessive steam will lower gasification temperature and degrade fuel gas quality. The volume of hydrogen can be increased over 10% through the use of dolomite.