A Method to Determinate the Energy Potential Generation From Biomass Gasification

Abstract

This paper is about the development of a computational method to determinate the energy generation potential from residual biomass gasification, in function of the variables and working conditions as the equivalence ratio (ER), and the elemental composition of the biomass, using air as gasifying agent; and by this way promote the generation of low cost energy, whether it be electrical or mechanical energy in order to take advantage of products which normally have no value added. This method was developed using the simulation software of chemical and thermodynamic processes Aspen HYSYS®, this software has a large number of components and the possibility of evaluating their physicochemical properties, along with the equations of state of Peng-Robinson which allow you to define the properties of different fluids with a low error range. The energy generation potential was evaluated with 5 different biomasses commonly generated by agroindustry in Córdoba-Colombia (Rice husk, sesame stalks, cotton waste, corncobs and coconut fiber) by a modeling of the kinetics of the reactions, where a combination between the reaction mechanisms in function of the Gibbs free energy and reactors, whose yields have been programmed from statistical regressions obtained from other reference, was carried out, and thus simulate the gasification process at 1000 ° C and an ER between 0.21–0.3, getting in this way a synthesis gas with heating values of around 6 (MJ /Nm3) and efficiencies of around 60%.