Parametric experimental tests of steam gasification of pine wood in a fluidized bed reactor

Among Renewable Energy Sources (RES), biomass represent one of the most common and suitable solution in order to contribute to the global energy supply and to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. The disposal of some residual biomass, as pruning from pine trees, represent a problem for agricultural and agro-industrial sectors. But if the residual biomass are used for energy production can become a resource. The most suitable energy conversion technology for the above-mentioned biomass is gasification process because the high C/N ratio and the low moisture content, obtained from the analysis. In this work a small-pilot bubbling-bed gasification plant has been designed, constructed and used in order to obtain, from the pine trees pruning, a syngas with low tar and char contents and high hydrogen content. The activities showed here are part of the activities carried out in the European 7FP UNIfHY project. In particular the aim of this work is to develop experimental test on a bench scale steam blown fluidized bed biomass gasifier. These tests will be utilized in future works for the simulations of a pilot scale steam fluidized bed gasifier (100 kWth) fed with different biomass feedstock. The results of the tests include produced gas and tar composition as well gas, tar and char yield. Tests on a bench scale reactor (8 cm I.D.) were carried out varying steam to biomass ratio from 0.5, 0.7 and 1 to 830°C.