Plasma Pyrolysis of Biomass for Production of Gaseous Fuel to Generate Electricity

Abstract

A RF (radio frequency) plasma pyrolysis reactor was presented in this paper. Application of this reactor to the pyrolysis treatment of biomass at different operating pressures (3000-8000Pa), with various input powers (1600-2000W) was investigated. Interest was focused on the effect of the pyrolysis conditions on the yield of gas and char, the gas composition as well as the quality of the char. On average, the gas yield can reach 66 wt% of the biomass feed at the input power 1800W and operating pressure 5000Pa. The total content of CO and H 2 in the gas product reached 76 vol.% on a nitrogen-free basis. Thus the utilization efficiency is increased after the biomass is converted into gaseous fuel, which has wider applications such as city gas, burning in utility boilers, gas turbines or gas engines to generate electricity.

Progress of the Pyrolyzer Reactors and Advanced Technologies for Biomass Pyrolysis Processing

“…Compared to conventional biomass pyrolysis techniques, plasma pyrolysis technology offers many unique properties. These advantages are possible at low temperatures and slow heating rates [209]. The problems that are associated with conventional biomass pyrolysis, such as low gas yield and high tar amounts, can be eliminated by plasma pyrolysis technology.…”

Electrification of gasification-based biomass-to-X processes – a critical review and in-depth assessment

“…183 In 2005, the research group started investigating RF plasma pyrolysis to treat fir saw dust. 188,190,191 The experiments were in a fixed bed downdraft reactor inside a vacuum reactor using N 2 as carrier and plasma gas. 188 They showed a high gas yield of up to 66 wt.% of the biomass feed, implying that plasma pyrolysis is more of an alternative to gasification than a pretreatment method.…”

Generating electricity from solid waste and biodiesel

“…It is also clear that the use of all types of agricultural residues for the electricity production is not always a maintainable way of producing energy. [9] In the 1990s China gave importance on developing new and efficient technologies to transform biomass into convenient and clean energy products. Biomass material is transformed into gaseous fuel by biomass gasification.…”