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

科学与技术卓越研究中心博士后研究奖学金（CREST- prf）项目支持具有重大潜力的CREST中心研究人员，并为他们提供培训和研究经验，以拓宽视野，促进跨学科互动，并使他们在科学界处于领导地位。CREST- prf项目与北卡罗来纳农业技术大学CREST生物能源中心的水生化学研究重点相一致。这项研究的目标是设计和建造一个安静的、小型的垃圾碎纸机和碎片机，它可以处理大块的木材和家庭垃圾（HW），并提供给一个将材料转化为电力的装置。欧洲、日本和美国的一些公司都在使用气化过程。这项研究的新颖之处在于设计并测试了一种能够处理家庭垃圾的小型气化装置。拟议工作的成功实施有可能减少垃圾填埋场空间，帮助发展中国家的垃圾填埋场，并为本科生提供研究机会。这项研究和赞助的美国国家科学基金会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区提供一种从垃圾和木材中小规模产生生物电的方法。拟议的工作旨在实现以下定量目标：(1)测试气化炉中的不同原料，这些原料代表生活垃圾的可燃成分。(2)研究通过改变预处理干燥时间来改变原料含水率的影响，并测量对发电量和整体系统效率的影响；(3)改变废气回收比，测量合成气成分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、堆肥或回收每一类废物对环境更有利。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。预计这项研究将在两到三份同行评议的期刊上发表。本科生将参与科学研究过程，并将在实验室和现场测试，计算机建模和期刊论文写作方面进行培训。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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.