Syngas generation for methanol synthesis: oxy-steam gasification route using agro-residue as fuel

Singh, A and Gupta, A and N, Rakesh and Shivapuji, AM and Dasappa, S (2022) Syngas generation for methanol synthesis: oxy-steam gasification route using agro-residue as fuel. In: Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery .

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Abstract

The article presents an experimental investigation on the generation of hydrogen-rich syngas through oxy-steam gasification of corncobs, a key agro-residue available in many countries, to establish biomass gasification coupled with swing adsorption-based multi-component gas separation as a promising route for renewable methanol production. The gasification of corncobs is performed in a fixed-bed downdraft gasifier to generate syngas, which is further conditioned to adjust the gaseous mixture mole ratio to produce feed suitable for catalytic methanol synthesis. Conditioning involves a packed bed containing commercial type 4A sodium zeolites, where carbon dioxide adsorption takes place. The adaptation of a low-pressure operation to selectively adsorb carbon dioxide is a key feature of the separation process. The paper also reports on the characterization of contaminants toward establishing the gas quality for catalytic synthesis. Tars and trace gases are identified and quantified using two techniques: gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy and reagent-based gas detector tubes. The 10 kg/h biomass gasification system is operated at molar steam to biomass ratio of 2.3 and an equivalence ratio of 0.24. After gas separation, syngas with an average module value of 2.48 is obtained with total tar (phenol, benzofuran, naphthalene, 2-methyl naphthalene) and trace gases (HCl, HF, and H2S) being about 1.66 ppmV and less than 1.6 ppmV, respectively. This analysis establishes the agro-residue oxy-steam gasification followed by low-pressure swing adsorption as a potential route for producing module-adjusted clean syngas for catalytic methanol synthesis. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Keywords:	Biomass; Carbon dioxide; Chlorine compounds; Gas adsorption; Gas chromatography; Gasification; Hydrogen production; Mass spectrometry; Methanol; Molar ratio; Naphthalene; Packed beds; Separation; Steam; Synthesis gas manufacture; Zeolites, Agro residues; Gas contaminants; Gas separations; Methanol synthesis; Module adjustment; Oxy-steam gasification; Steam gasification; Syn gas; Syn-gas generation; Trace gas, Synthesis gas
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Sustainable Technologies (formerly ASTRA)
Date Deposited:	09 Mar 2022 10:22
Last Modified:	09 Mar 2022 10:22
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/71461

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