IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v158y2015icp474-483.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of char and tar in determining the gas-phase partitioning of nitrogen during biomass gasification

Author

Listed:
  • Broer, Karl M.
  • Brown, Robert C.

Abstract

Gasification is an attractive option for converting biomass into fuels and chemicals. Most biomass contains significant amounts of fuel-bound nitrogen (FBN), which partially converts into ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) during gasification. These nitrogen compounds are problematic as they can lead to NOX emissions or catalyst poisoning in downstream applications of syngas. FBN can convert to other products as well, including diatomic nitrogen (N2), char-bound nitrogen (char-N), and tar-bound nitrogen (tar-N). Efforts to predict concentrations of NH3 and HCN have been hindered by a lack of accurate, comprehensive measurements of nitrogen partitioning among gasification products. The present study gasified switchgrass under allothermal, short residence time conditions and measured NH3, HCN, char-N, and tar-N as a function of temperature in the range of 650–850°C with diatomic nitrogen determined by difference. It was found that a major portion of FBN was retained in the char and tar products. As temperature was increased, char and tar were consumed, releasing nitrogen as gaseous NH3 and HCN. This increase in undesirable nitrogen compounds is contrary to the predictions of most gasification models, which overlook the presence of significant nitrogen in char and tar even if they include tar cracking and char gasification reactions. The results of this study demonstrate that gas-phase reactions alone are not sufficient to predict the fate of nitrogen during gasification. In order for modeling efforts to obtain more accurate predictions of nitrogen partitioning, the reactions through which gaseous nitrogen-bearing species are released from char and tar must be considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Broer, Karl M. & Brown, Robert C., 2015. "The role of char and tar in determining the gas-phase partitioning of nitrogen during biomass gasification," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 474-483.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:158:y:2015:i:c:p:474-483
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.08.100
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915010363
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.08.100?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Jong, W. & Ünal, Ö. & Andries, J. & Hein, K. R. G. & Spliethoff, H., 2003. "Thermochemical conversion of brown coal and biomass in a pressurised fluidised bed gasifier with hot gas filtration using ceramic channel filters: measurements and gasifier modelling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(3-4), pages 425-437, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jana Růžičková & Marek Kucbel & Helena Raclavská & Barbora Švédová & Konstantin Raclavský & Michal Šafář & Pavel Kantor, 2019. "Chemical and Mineralogical Composition of Soot and Ash from the Combustion of Peat Briquettes in Household Boilers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-21, October.
    2. Gambarotta, Agostino & Morini, Mirko & Zubani, Andrea, 2018. "A non-stoichiometric equilibrium model for the simulation of the biomass gasification process," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 119-127.
    3. Deng, Lei & Torres-Rojas, Dorisel & Burford, Michael & Whitlow, Thomas H. & Lehmann, Johannes & Fisher, Elizabeth M., 2018. "Fuel sensitivity of biomass cookstove performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 13-20.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xu, Shisen & Ren, Yongqiang & Wang, Baomin & Xu, Yue & Chen, Liang & Wang, Xiaolong & Xiao, Tiancun, 2014. "Development of a novel 2-stage entrained flow coal dry powder gasifier," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 318-323.
    2. Li, Fenghai & Li, Zhenzhu & Huang, Jiejie & Fang, Yitian, 2014. "Understanding mineral behaviors during anthracite fluidized-bed gasification based on slag characteristics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 279-287.
    3. Ud Din, Zia & Zainal, Z.A., 2016. "Biomass integrated gasification–SOFC systems: Technology overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1356-1376.
    4. Al-attab, K.A. & Zainal, Z.A., 2015. "Externally fired gas turbine technology: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 474-487.
    5. Sun, Zhi-Ao & Jin, Bao-Sheng & Zhang, Ming-Yao & Liu, Ren-Ping & Zhang, Yong, 2008. "Experimental study on cotton stalk combustion in a circulating fluidized bed," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(11), pages 1027-1040, November.
    6. Li, Guangyu & Xu, Shisen & Zhao, Xuebin & Sun, Ruijin & Wang, Chang’an & Liu, Kang & Mao, Qisen & Che, Defu, 2020. "Investigation of chemical composition and morphology of ash deposition in syngas cooler of an industrialized two-stage entrained-flow coal gasifier," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    7. Ren, Qiangqiang & Zhao, Changsui, 2013. "NOx and N2O precursors (NH3 and HCN) from biomass pyrolysis: interaction between amino acid and mineral matter," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 170-174.
    8. Al-attab, K.A. & Zainal, Z.A., 2018. "Micro gas turbine running on naturally aspirated syngas: An experimental investigation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 210-216.
    9. Font Palma, Carolina, 2013. "Modelling of tar formation and evolution for biomass gasification: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 129-141.
    10. Han, Long & Wang, Qinhui & Luo, Zhongyang & Rong, Nai & Deng, Guangyi, 2013. "H2 rich gas production via pressurized fluidized bed gasification of sawdust with in situ CO2 capture," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 36-43.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:158:y:2015:i:c:p:474-483. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.