Understanding and improving the gasification of mixed feeds including woody biomass, waste and non bio-mass feedstocks

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Gasification is one process in which the wastes from the vast natural resources of Canada can be effectively utilized to provide energy in a sustainable fashion. These wastes include woody biomass derived from pine-beetle kill, construction waste, and petroleum coke (a byproduct of the oil industry). Some of these wastes contain natural catalysts (substances that affect the rate of a reaction) that can enhance the gasification of the other wastes. For example, wood contains potassium that is a well known catalyst for the gasification of coal. In this project, three research groups from the Universities of British Columbia, Calgary and Toronto will work together to better understand the benefits and challenges of co-feeding woody biomass feedstocks with other feedstocks (petroleum coke, construction waste, and low-bituminous coal) in gasification processes. More specifically, the project will involve complete feedstock characterization combined with experiments to elucidate the rate of species transfer, the effectiveness of water contained in the feedstocks compared to externally-supplied water, and the gasification performance of single and mixed feedstocks in high-pressure thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) units and a bench-scale gasifier. The knowledge gained from these studies will be combined to optimize the operation of a pilot-scale gasification unit, which will then be modeled with a kinetically-modified Gibbs Reactor Model. This project provides a unique opportunity for these researchers to combine their expertise and work with a gasification company, Nexterra Energy Corporation, as well as a modeling company, Process Simulations Limited