Experimental study on sawdust air gasification in an entrained-flow reactor

Abstract Experiments were performed in an entrained-flow reactor to better understand the processes involved in biomass air gasification. Effects of the reaction temperatures (700 °C, 800 °C, 900 °C and 1000 °C), residence time and the equivalence ratio in the range of 0.22–0.34 on the gasification process were investigated. The behavior of biomass gasification was discussed in terms of composition of produced gas. Four parameters, i.e. the low heating value, fuel gas production, carbon conversion and cold gas efficiency were used to evaluate the gasification. The results show that CO, CO 2 and H 2 are the main gasification products, while hydrocarbons (CH 4 and C 2 H 4 ) are the minor ones. With the increase of the reaction temperature, the concentration of CO decreases, while the concentrations of CO 2 and H 2 increase. The concentrations of CH 4 and C 2 H 4 reach their maximum value when the reaction temperature is 800 °C. The optimal reaction temperature is considered to be 800 °C and the optimal equivalence ratio is 0.28 in that the low heating value of the produced gas, carbon conversion and cold gas efficiency achieve their maximum values. The kinetic parameters of sawdust air gasification are calculated basing on the Arrhenius correlation.