Combining autothermal and plasma-assisted tar reforming

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The raw product gas produced through gasification of biomass and waste often includes tars (condensablehydrocarbons with molecular weight above 78 g/mol) and other lighter hydrocarbons that must be removedprior to producing a syngas (CO and H2) for further upgrading, for instance to avoid fouling of downstreamcatalysts. This tar reforming process can be achieved through several different ways, but an input of energy andof oxidizing species is generally involved. The addition of steam and/or oxygen aims at increasing thetemperature in raw product gas by partial oxidation to initiate thermal decomposition of tars but also to achievea gas temperature needed for converting all hydrocarbons to the desired syngas molecules in the secondarycatalytic zone. In this project, the potential benefit of using a combination of autothermal reforming andplasma-assisted processes will be investigated.Aplas Ltd. is developing plasma technologies for a wide range of thermochemical conversion processes,including biomass gasification and solid waste treatment. The occurrence of tar species is a problem in severalof these applications and Aplas Ltd. recognizes the need for fundamental research such as that proposed herethat investigates the coupling between fluid mechanics and chemical phenomena taking place in practicalreformer geometries.