Encyclopedia of Renewable Energy - James G. Speight

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value syngas, results in lower capital cost for the gasification plant.

      If the gas turbines using fossil fuel (natural gas or diesel) which has heating value of approximately 885 Btu/ft3, needs to be interchangeable with the biomass syngas, higher heating values are preferred. In a natural-gas-fired turbine, the gas is only related to 2% v/v of the flow and the rest is air for dilution and combustion, while in contrast, syngas accounts for 14 to 16% v/v of the total gas.

      The IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) uses air as the gasifying agent and requires modified turbine combustors to handle the low heating-value gas (110 to 190 Btu/ft3). The low calorific syngas up to 135 Btu/ft3 is only suitable for firing in the boiler or use in diesel engines.

      Indirectly heated gasifiers in general generate syngas with a high percentage of hydrogen, methane, and C2+ compounds which directly contribute for the higher heating value of the syngas.

      The product stream at high pressure and temperature needs to be cleaned under hot conditions not lower than 540°C (1005°F) (tar dew point) in order to maximize the energy conversion efficiency. Thus, a hot cleanup system is required, for which either catalytic tar crackers or a thermal tar cracker could be utilized. A catalytic tar reformer will operate at temperatures comparable to gasifier temperature of 825°C (1,515°F), while a thermal cracker will typically operate at 870 to 980°C (1600 to 1,795°F). After the tar reformer/cracker, the product gas will be partially cooled to minimize the amount of alkali vapors, typically to 350 to 650°C. The product will then pass through a filter to remove solids. As gas turbine application limits the alkali to less than 25 ppb, much of alkali as well needs to be removed.

      See also: Synthesis Gas Quality.

      Biomass – Herbaceous

      Herbaceous biomass is biomass from plants that have a nonwoody stem and which die back at the end of the growing season. This biomass includes most agricultural crops and grasses, including bamboo and wheat straw. Also, relatively young and essentially nonwoody parts of trees exhibit similar characteristics. In general, herbaceous biomass will have higher nutrient contents and lower lignin contents than wood. Herbaceous biomass is variable in composition depending on the time of year and on the type of tissue. Composition can also be strongly influenced by the availability of minerals or nutrients in the soil.

      Herbaceous biomass is classified into cereal crops, pastures, oilseed crops, tubers and legumes, flowers, herbaceous biomass of gardens, parks, pruning, vineyards, orchards, and mixtures of all these. This biomass can be used raw (direct residues of the field) or processed (from the food industry).

      Residues from cereal crops include the use of the following parts of the plant: dried stems, pods, and husks, as well as their mixtures. Of the grasslands are considered stems, shells, and their mixtures. In oil crops, stems, leaves, pods, rinds, and their mixtures are considered. The residues of the tuber crops are integrated by stems, leaves, roots, and mixtures of these. The stems, leaves, pods, and their mixtures can be harvested from legume crops, but it should be noted that the incorporation of legumes in an annual biomass cultivation system could reduce the nitrogen fertilizer requirements, which will reduce the inputs of bioenergy production. However, they also contribute to the anthropogenic emissions of nitrous oxide (NO2) which, in this case, nitrous oxide comes mainly from the decomposition of legume residues.

      Finally, from the cultivation of flowers, the waste from the plant (when the quality of these is not adequate), the stems, leaves, as well as their mixture can be used. For its part, processed residues can come from herbaceous residues without chemical treatment, as well as chemically treated herbaceous residues and its mixtures. This type of biomass is used mainly in combustion and co-combustion systems, where the technology is well developed, has high efficiency, and low emissions; nevertheless, herbaceous crops that have a high content of potassium which may be detrimental for biomass combustion equipment. It is also used, albeit to a lesser extent, in gasification systems in mixtures with other sources of biomass.

      The most abundant form of herbaceous biomass in the world, particularly in European countries, is straw, which is obtained during the annual production of cereals in a proportion of 0.6 to 0.8 tons of straw per ton of grain in the field. In countries where crop productivity is high (in the order of 8 to 10 tons of grain per hectare), the amount of straw per hectare can be between 6 and 8 tons and much of it has been removed for the next crop cycle.

Properties Herbaceous biomass type
Wheat straw Barley straw
Moisture (%, w/w) 16 30
Volatile material (%, w/w) 59 46
Fixed carbon (%, w/w) 21 18
Ash (%, w/w) 4 6
Net calorific value (MJ/kg) 18.6 16.1
C (%, w/w) 48.5 45.7
H (%), w/w 5.5 6.1
O (%, w/w) 3.9 38.3
N (%, w/w) 0.3 0.4
S (%, w/w) 0.1 0.1

      Switchgrass, a type of fine-stemmed herbaceous biomass, has been used in the United States as a herbaceous cultivation model, has a calorific value comparable to that of wood, but with a lower moisture content; it also has a low content of ash and alkalis, indicating that it could be an adequate fuel for combustion. The main difficulty of this type of biomass is the production of slag at the time of gasification, associated with the ash content. To avoid slag production, the temperature can be reduced, but this results in the loss of carbon. The gas formed in the gasifier contains impurities such as particles, tar, nitrogen compounds, sulfur compounds, and alkaline compounds.

      See also: Biomass.

      Biomass

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