Modern agriculture is an extremely energy intensive process. However, high agricultural productivities and the growth of green revolution has been possible only by large amount of energy inputs, especially those coming from fossil fuels. These energy resources have not been able to provide an economically viable solution for agricultural applications. Biomass energy-based systems had been extensively used for transportation and on farm systems during World War II: the most common and reliable solution was wood or biomass gasification. The latter means incomplete combustion of biomass resulting in production of combustible gases which mostly consist of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2) and traces of methane (CH4). This mixture is called syngas, which can be successfully used to run internal combustion engines (both compression and spark ignition) or as substitute for furnace oil in direct heat applications. The aim of the present paper is to help the experimentation of innovative plants for electric power production using agro-forest biomass derived by hazelnut cultivations. An additional purpose is to point out a connection among the chemical and physical properties of the outgoing syngas by biomass characterization and gas-chromatography analysis.
Decomposition of gaseous NH 3 from ammonia (NH 3 )-containing wastewater was explored using Ni-loading Al 2 O 3 catalysts. The thermochemical decomposition of an NH 3 /steam mixture (wet-NH 3 ) with different steam contents at 873, 923, and 973 K using a fixed-bed reactor under ambient pressure. The present results indicated that the catalysts can be deactivated by the formation of NiAl 2 O 4 , which can be thermodynamically generated, and confirmed that the extent of deactivation was greatly affected by the partial pressure of the steam (P H 2 O ). The catalytic activities at 873 K decreased with increasing P H 2 O , whereas the activity was constant above P H 2 O of 25 kPa. However, the NH 3 conversion was almost independent of the NH 3 flow rate and temperature, and ∼30% of the NH 3 was decomposed at each temperature. This study indicated that, even in the presence of steam, this catalyst could decompose NH 3 from NH 4 + -containing water.
Abstract:One of the most important issues in biomass biocatalytic gasification is the correct prediction of gasification products, with particular attention to the Topping Atmosphere Residues (TARs). In this work, performedwithin the European 7FP UNIfHY project, we develops and validate experimentally a model which is able of predicting the outputs,including TARs, of a steam-fluidized bed biomass gasifier. Pine wood was chosen as biomass feedstock: the products obtained in pyrolysis tests are the relevant model input. Hydrodynamics and chemical properties of the reacting system are considered: the hydrodynamic approach is based on the two phase theory of fluidization, meanwhile the chemical model is based on the kinetic equations for the heterogeneous and homogenous reactions. The derived differentials equations for the gasifier at steady state were implemented MATLAB. Solution was consecutively carried out using the Boubaker Polynomials Expansion Scheme by varying steam/biomass ratio (0.5-1) and operating temperature (750-850°C).The comparison between models and experimental results showed that the model is able of predicting gas mole fractions and production rate including most of the representative TARs compounds.
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