Coal gasification

In industrial chemistry, coal gasification is the process of producing syngas—a mixture consisting primarily of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (), carbon dioxide (), methane (), and water vapour ()—from coal and water, air and/or oxygen. Historically, coal was gasified to produce coal gas, also known as "town gas". Coal gas is combustible and was used for heating and municipal lighting, before the advent of large-scale extraction of natural gas from oil wells. In current practice, large-scale coal gasification installations are primarily for electricity generation (both in conventional thermal power stations and molten carbonate fuel cell power stations), or for production of chemical feedstocks. The hydrogen obtained from coal gasification can be used for various purposes such as making ammonia, powering a hydrogen economy, or upgrading fossil fuels. Alternatively, coal-derived syngas can be converted into transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel through additional treat

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Gasification is a process that converts biomass- or fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials into gases, including as the largest fractions: nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and car

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Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more gene

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A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the thr

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Supercritical water gasification of effluents from composted human excreta and recycling of the aqueous phases for microalgae cultivation

Dorian Tosi Robinson

Effluents from composted human excreta were sampled and characterized. Results show a constancy in the characteristics and nutrient content of these effluents. Then, these effluents were treated with supercritical water gasification, producing hydrogen rich gas (67-69%). Carbon efficiencies of 41-43% were achieved. Microalgae Chlorella vulgaris (CV) and Phaeodactylum tricornutum (Ph.t) cultivation were studied in the gasification aqueous phase (AP). No growth was observed in the raw AP even with adjusted pH. CV could grow in the activated carbon treated AP with similar results for cell concentration and pigment content, but with higher biomass production than in its control medium. Ph.t was unable to grow even in the treated AP. These results show promising development in recuperating energy and nutrients from effluents from composted human excreta, combining energy production, microalgae valorization and contributing to close the nutrient loop.

2017

Life Cycle Assessment of Thermochemical Conversion of Empty Fruit Bunch of Oil Palm to Bio-Methane

Edgard Gnansounou, Paolo Montafia

The energy demand is increasing as well as the GHG emissions and the fossil fuels depletion. Public awareness on this topic significantly raised up in last decades. Nowadays conversion of residual biomasses in energy represents a real opportunity. However, the sustainability of such fuels has to be proven: Life Cycle Assessment is usually used for that purpose. Because of the increasing natural gas demand, scientists are searching for new gasification techniques and among them the hydrothermal gasification is extremely promising. In this chapter, the LCA of such a technology is presented. Contributions of land use change is highlighted. The chapter evaluates and compares effects of different allocation methods of raw material and it points out a rigorous approach for economic allocation. Furthermore, a section is devoted to the end of the plantation life and its consequence on carbon stock and GHG emissions. When the process is correctly integrated 1 MWh of heat and 16.06 kg of equivalent fertilizer are got by hydrothermal way with a significant reduction of impacts. Moreover, the climate change impact is cut down up to 91% and the fossil depletion decreases up to 96%. The study underlines the great dependency of impact reduction to allocation methods: thus, reduction percentages are 80% GHG emissions and 85% fossil depletion compared to the reference system.

Elsevier2017

Evaluation of the State-of-the-art of Biomass gasification for heat and electricity production

In the order to produce energy for the large amount of people still currently out of the national girds, different possibilities exist. For practical and economic reasons, the most popular one is the use of Diesel engines coupled with generator sets. Petrol reserves being not infinite, renewable solutions have to be found to insure a sustainable development of the poorest areas in the world. One of those could be the gasification of biomass. The latter has two advantages: Biomass is a renewable energy source and is present almost everywhere in the world: the gas produced can have various applications among them fuel for unmodified Diesel engines. Unfortunately, things are not so simple: the gas produced has a low heating value, its use in an internal combustion engine requires cleaning, biomass is not uniform through the world and technology has to be adapted for each properties, biomass supplying can product to environmental hazards if it is not strictly controlled, etc. Moreover, no standardization exists currently for the development of the technology. However, positive results have been obtained and it seems that interesting opportunities exist for the future. It requires further investments and global communication between the protagonists. The present study tries to give a complete overview of the current biomass gasification field. Some important results obtained on existing gasification plants, as well as problems encountered on technical, social, environmental and economic point of view, are also presented. Finally, some promising alternatives are proposed, as well as the main required research.

2001