Designing, Building, and Testing a micro Combined Heat and Power (mCHP) Gasifier using Wood and Solid Waste as Fuel

卓越研究中心在科学和技术博士后研究奖学金（CREST-PRF）的CREST计划内的轨道支持开始CREST中心研究人员具有显着的潜力，并为他们提供培训和研究经验，将拓宽视野，促进跨学科的互动，并建立他们在科学界的领导地位。该CREST-PRF项目与北卡罗来纳州农业技术大学CREST水生化学生物能源中心的研究重点一致。这项研究的目标是设计和建造一个安静的小型垃圾粉碎机和切碎机，可以处理散装木材和家庭垃圾（HW），并将其转化为电力。气化工艺在欧洲、日本和美国的一些公司使用。这项研究的新奇在于设计和测试一个能够处理家庭垃圾的小型气化装置。成功实施拟议的工作有可能减少垃圾填埋场的空间，帮助那些在发展中国家，并为本科生提供一个研究机会。这项研究和赞助NSF CREST生物能源中心的首要目标是扩大生物质能的使用和可用性。这项研究将致力于为离网地点提供一种小规模利用垃圾和木材发电的方法。拟议的工作旨在实现以下定量目标：（1）测试气化炉中代表生活垃圾可燃成分的不同原料。(2)通过改变预处理干燥时间来研究改变原料的水分含量的效果，并测量对所产生的电力和整个系统效率的影响。（3）改变废气再循环比，并测量合成气组成的任何改善以及对生产效率的影响。(4)最后，将对气化装置进行生命周期评估（LCA），以确定气化、堆肥或回收各类废物是否对环境更好。LCA将考虑不同的环境措施（例如，温室气体排放、水质影响、人类健康影响）。对于这四个目标中的每一个，化学过程模拟将与气化装置的现场结果进行比较。预计这项研究将导致两到三个同行评审的期刊出版物。本科生将参与科学研究过程，并将接受实验室和现场测试，计算机建模和期刊论文写作方面的培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology-Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (CREST-PRF) track within the CREST program supports beginning CREST Center investigators with significant potential and provides them with training and research experiences that will broaden perspectives, facilitate interdisciplinary interactions and establish them in positions of leadership within the scientific community. This CREST-PRF project is aligned with the research focus of the CREST Bioenergy Center for Aquatic Chemistry at the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical University. The goal of this research is to design and build a quiet, small-scale trash shredder and chipper that can process bulk wood and household waste (HW) to feed into a unit that converts the material to electricity. The gasification process is used in Europe, Japan, and some companies in the United States. The novelty of the proposed research is to design and test a small-scale gasification unit that has the ability to handle household waste. Successful implementation of the proposed work has the potential to reduce landfill space, assist those in the developing world and provide a research opportunity for undergraduate students. The overarching goal of this research and the sponsoring NSF CREST Bioenergy Center is to expand the use and availability of bioenergy from biomass. This research will work towards providing off-grid locations a method to generate bioelectricity from trash and wood on a small scale. The proposed work intends to achieve the following quantitative objectives: (1) Testing of different feedstocks in the gasifier that represent combustible components of household waste. (2) Investigating the effect of varying the moisture content of the feedstock by changing the pretreatment drying time and measure the effect on the electricity produced and overall system efficiency, (3) Varying the exhaust recycling ratio and measuring any improvement in syngas composition as well as the effect on production efficiency. (4) Finally, a life cycle assessment (LCA) will be conducted of the gasification unit to determine if it is better for the environment to gasify, compost, or recycle each category of waste. The LCA will consider different environmental measures (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, water quality impact, human health impacts). For each of the four objectives, chemical process simulations will be compared to the field results of the gasification unit. It is expected that this research will result in two or three peer-reviewed journal publications. Undergraduate students will participate in the scientific research process and will be trained in lab and field testing, computer modeling, and journal paper writing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.