Proposed 20 Tonnes per Day Biomass Gasification Pilot Plant

Summary

Sized and dried biomass is converted to charcoal at 500°C and essentially atmospheric pressure, by combustion gases from an inert gas generator. Liquid and gaseous pyrolysis products are cooled, the gas being passed to the inert gas generator, drier or flare and the pyroligneous liquor pumped to a slurry mixer. Product charcoal is passed to the mixer, and the resulting charcoal slurry is pumped to the entrained bed gasifier operating at 55 bar pressure. A mixture of oxygen and steam is introduced to initiate and maintain gasification at approximately 1350°C. Steam for gasification is provided by a gas-fired package boiler with superheat facilities. The product gases pass through a shift chamber/quench cooler, then into a scrubbing system where recirculated condensate is used as the coolant. Excess liquor from the scrubber is passed back to the slurry unit. The product gases from the scrubber are analysed and then combusted in the boiler and/or flare/stack facility before discharge to atmosphere. Part of the main product gas from the demonstration plant will be sent through a methanol process route to generate small quantities of methanol for verification and analysis.