A Downdraft Fixed-Bed Biomass Gasification System with Integrated Products of Electricity, Heat, and Biochar: The Key Features and Initial Commercial Performance

A Scientometric Review: Biomass Gasification Study from 2006 to 2020

Biomass gasification represents a significant way to produce energy from biomass. It features renewable properties and offers great potential for utilization. The application of biomass gasification products, design of the gasifier, type of biomass feedstock, gasification agents, and gasification parameters are key for the biomass gasification process. This work applies bibliometric approaches to provide a comprehensive and objective analysis of worldwide biomass gasification study trends over the period from 2006 to 2020 according to the Web Of Science core collection data. A total of 3222 articles associated with biomass gasification was retrieved, and its number grew annually. The subjects of study are diversified, primarily classified into "Energy & Fuels", "Engineering Chemical", and "Green Sustainable Science Technology". Moreover, Energy was a top published journal in the field of biomass gasification. Austrian contributors had the majority of publications, next to China and the USA. Liejin Luo from Xi'an Jiaotong University possessed the greatest H-index. Keyword evaluation showed that biomass gasification is a current hotspot, among which life-cycle assessment, sustainability, and deep processing of gasification products are future research directions. This work is predicted to offer further research interest in biomass gasification.

Barriers to Success: A Technical Review on the Limits and Possible Future Roles of Small Scale Gasifiers

Literature and manuals refer to biomass gasification as one of the most efficient processes for power generation, highlighting features, such as residual biomass use, distributed generation and carbon sequestration, that perfectly incorporate gasification into circular economies and sustainable development goals. Despite these features, small scale applications struggle to succeed as a leading solution for sustainable development. The aim of this review is to investigate the existing technological barriers that limit the spreading of biomass gasification from a socio-technical point of view. The review outlines how existing technologies originated from under feed-in-tariff regimes and highlights where the current design goals strongly differ from what will be needed in the near future. Relevant market-ready small-scale gasification systems are analyzed under this lens, leading to an analysis of the reactor and filtration design. To help understand the economical sustainability of these plants, an analysis of the influence of capital expenditures and operating expenditures on the return of investment is included in the discussion. Finally, a literature review on prototypes and pre-market reactors is used as a basis for spotting the characteristics of the system that will likely resolve issues around fuel flexibility, cost efficiency and load variability.

Features and Commercial Performance of a System of Biomass Gasification for Simultaneous Clean Heating and Activated Carbon Production

Biomass is a renewable and clean energy. Moreover, clean heating plays a vital role in solving issues related to the heating source structures in northern China. This paper reports on our novel technology: a system of biomass (mainly fruitwood waste, referred to in short as FWW) gasification for simultaneous clean heating and fruitwood activated carbon (FAC) production. In particular, we will discuss the features of our gasification system and product characteristics, as well as energy efficiency, environmental benefits, and economic benefits. The results showed that the energy conversion from FWW gasification was as follows: 48.10% hot gas, 49.08% fruitwood gasified carbon (FGC), and 2.82% energy loss. The NO _x emissions of this system were about 126 mg/Nm³. The iodine adsorption values of the derived FGC and FAC were about 550 and 1000 mg/g, respectively. The system of gasification consumed 36 t of FWW per day, obtained 10 t of FGC, and produced 5 t of FAC. The emissions of CO₂ were neutral during the operation, and the clean heating area was 4100 m²/d in Chengde, Hebei, China, with the payback period under one heating season. These results show that the system is practical, economical, energy-saving, and environmentally friendly.

Clean Poultry Energy System Design Based on Biomass Gasification Technology: Thermodynamic and Economic Analysis

Despite growing attention has been paid to waste material gasification for high-efficiency energy conversion, the application of gasification technology in meat waste management is still limited. To fill this gap, this study designed two systems which evaluated the potential of using gasification technology to manage the poultry waste that has been exposed to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Two systems are simulated by using Aspen plus combined with a one-dimensional kinetics control gasification model, and wood or dried poultry is selected as the feedstock for the gasifier. The results show that the energy efficiency of the poultry drying system (wood gasification) is 14.5%, which is 12% lower than that of the poultry gasification system when the poultry energy is accounted as energy input. Even though the economic analysis indicates the poultry elimination cost of the poultry gasification system is only 30 $/tonne lower than the poultry drying system, taking the absence of dried poultry burial into consideration, the poultry gasification system has development potentials. The sensitivity analysis shows that labor fee and variable factor has larger effects on the poultry elimination cost, while the uncertainty analysis determines the uncertainty level of the economic analysis results.