Co-gasication of Colombian coal and biomass in uidized

bed: An experimental study

Jhon F. Vlez, Farid Chejne
*
, Carlos F. Valds, Eder J. Emery, Carlos A. Londoo
Grupo de Termodinmica Aplicada y Energas Alternativas, Escuela de Procesos y Energa, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Carr. 80 No. 65223, Facultad de Minas, Medelln,
Antioquia, Colombia
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 11 March 2008
Received in revised form 26 August 2008
Accepted 7 October 2008
Available online 6 November 2008
Keywords:
Co-gasication
Biomass
Coal
Energy efciency
a b s t r a c t
The main results of an experimental work on co-gasication of Colombian biomass/coal blends in a u-
idized bed working at atmospheric pressure are reported in this paper. Several samples of blends were
prepared by mixing 615wt% biomass (sawdust, rice or coffee husk) with coal. Experimental assays were
carried out by using mixtures of different steams/blends (Rvc) and air/blend (Rac) ratios showing the fea-
sibility to implement co-gasication as energetic alternative to produce fuel gas to heat and to generate
electricity and the possibility of converting clean and efciently the refuse coal to a low-heating value
gas.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Reduced availability of fossil fuels and increased public concern
on pollution and climate change has caused a renewed interest on
environmentally friendly technologies for conversion of fossil fuels
in energy. One of these technologies is the co-gasication of coal
and biomass [16] in which a mixture of both fuels are converted
into a gas that can be used as a fuel or as a chemical precursor. A
reduction of green-house emission when coal and biomass are
co-gasied becomes evident given the renewable character of bio-
mass and the higher efciency that gasication has when com-
pared to coal combustion. Additional environmental benets of
co-gasication include a reduction on nitrogen oxides and sulfur
emissions.
Colombia has the largest coal reserves (around 6700 Mt) in
South America [7]. At the same time, residual biomass, particularly
sawdust, rice and coffee husks are abundant given the ample dis-
tribution of woodshops and the extensive agricultural exploitation
of rice and coffee. The study of the co-gasication of coal and resid-
ual biomass applied to the Colombian case seems, therefore,
relevant.
The co-gasication of coal and biomass has been extensively
studied [16,811]. The biomass traditionally used in gasication
include pine [1,3,6], olive oil wastes [3,12], wood [5,8,9] and rice
husk (e.g. [13]). Some authors [14] have studied gasication char-
acteristics of coffee related products, however, in the reviewed lit-
erature there was no study dedicated neither to the gasication of
coffee husk nor to the co-gasication of coffee or rice husks with
coal. The possibility of feeding solids of different size distribution
makes uidized beds [1519] one of the most studied technologies
for biomass gasication. Gasication in uidized beds yields gases
with heating values varying from 1.6 to 4.2 MJ m
3
[1519]. One
drawback of biomass gasication in uidized beds is that the low
ash melting point of sawdust can lead to agglomeration and loose
of uidizability [20].
This paper presents results obtained during the co-gasication
of a Colombian coal and sawdust, rice and coffee husks in a uid-
ized-bed pilot plant at atmospheric pressure with air/steam mix-
tures. In the experiments, the steam/fuel ratio (Rvc) was varied
between 0.1 and 0.8 kg/kg and the air/fuel ratio (Rac) from 2.0 to
3.0 kg/kg with the goal of determining the combination of coal
and biomass that yielded the gas with highest heating value. The
coal/biomass mixtures were successfully gasied with. One draw-
back observed was related to sintering, agglomeration, deposition,
erosion and corrosion caused by ash.
2. Experimental
2.1. Reactor
Fig. 1 presents a schematic diagram of the uidized-bed gasier
and its auxiliary equipment. The stainless steel (AISI 310) reactor
has an internal diameter of 22 cm and a height of 400 cm and is
lined with a 10 cm layer of refractory cement. The distributor plate
has 142 holes of 1 mm diameter arranged on a triangular pattern
0016-2361/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2008.10.018
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +57 4 4255333; fax: +57 4 2341002.
E-mail address: [email protected] (F. Chejne).
Fuel 88 (2009) 424430
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and is located between the conical (bottom) and the cylindrical
sections of the reactor. The external reactor wall is covered with
a 15 cm insulation layer of ceramic ber. An overow pipe placed
100 cm above the distributor plate continuously evacuates burned
solids and maintains a constant expanded bed height. Temperature
along the reactor was measured with thermocouples placed every
30 cm starting at the distributor plate level. Two more thermocou-
ples were located in the conical section and the freeboard exit. The
solid feed rate was measured using a screw feeder calibrated for
the different mixtures of coal and biomass used and located
30 cm above the distributor plate introduced the solids into the
reactor. A second feeder by gravity located 220 cm above the dis-
tributor plate can introduce the solids into the reactor. Separated
streams of air and steam were pre-heated before reaching the wind
box. A propane combustion chamber provided heat for the start-up
the process.
2.2. Gas analysis
Unburned solids were separated from the exhaust gas stream
using two cyclones (50100 lm) placed downstream from the
freeboard. The gas stream leaving the cyclones was cleaned to col-
lect nes with a 5 lm lter and dried in a cold trap before been
analyzed with a gas chromatograph for H
2
and nondispersed infra-
red analyzers for CO and CO
2
. The estimated errors of the gas anal-
ysis measurements are 0.5%. The time resolution was of the order
of 15 min for H
2
and instant for CO and CO
2
. The gas high heating
value (HHV) was calculated from the measured gas composition.
2.3. Experimental protocol
After a pre-heating time of 10 h the reactor reached the ignition
temperature of the coal/biomass mixture, the combustion chamber
was shutdown, and for both of the feeding systems, biomass and
coal are mixed before being fed. Air and steam streams were pre-
heated to 350 C. The operation of the gasier was considered
at steady-state when the bed temperature and the gas concentra-
tions were within 5% of an average constant value. While in stea-
dy-state, at least three separated gas analyzes were performed
before changing any experimental variables. Reference [4] presents
a more detailed description of the reactor and experimental
protocol.
2.4. Fuel
In the experiments, Colombian coal fromthe Nech mine mantle
1 (Amag, Antioquia) classied as sub-bituminous A (SUBBA), was
co-gasied with 6% and 15% of biomass. A higher biomass percent-
age in the mixtures was tested without success due to bad uidiz-
ability occurring as a consequence of the great density difference
between coal (1000 kg m
3
) and biomass (348674 kg m
3
). Table
1 shows the proximate and ultimate analysis and Table 2 shows
the main physical properties of the coal and the different bio-
masses used (sawdust, rice and coffee husks). Ultimate and proxi-
mate analyzes were performed by a local laboratory according to
ASTM standards. Mean particle size was evaluated using ASTM
wire mesh sieves.
Fig. 1. Schematics of gasier and auxiliary equipment.
Table 1
Solids characterization.
Sample Ultimate analysis (w/w %
d.a.f.)
Proximate analysis (w/w % as
received)
C H N O S M VM FC Ash
Coal 82.4 5.1 0.8 10.3 1.4 9.2 36.4 39 15.4
Rice husk 45.8 6.0 0.3 47.9 0.0 9.8 58.9 14.1 17.2
Sawdust 51.6 4.9 0.9 42.6 0.0 12.3 73.8 13.1 0.8
Coffee husk 46.8 4.9 0.6 47.1 0.6 10.4 74.3 14.3 1.0
J.F. Vlez et al. / Fuel 88 (2009) 424430 425
3. Results and discussion
It is generally agreed that the process of biomass and coal gas-
ication occurs through three steps. The initial devolatilisation or
pyrolysis step occurs at lower temperatures and produces volatile
matter and a char residue. Then, the secondary reactions start to
take place involving the volatile products. Finally, the gasication
reactions of the remaining carbonaceous residue occur with steam
and carbon dioxide. Volatiles and char may participate in reactions
(1)(7) as presented in Table 3.
Table 4 presents the main experimental parameters (biomass
type, percentage of biomass in the fuel, air and steam mass ows
and input temperatures) as well as bed temperature, main species
concentration and HHV. The temperature of the bed is the average
between the values of the rst and second thermocouples located
from bottom to top in the reactor.
3.1. Gasication temperature
Fig. 2 presents the temperature prole along the reactor for
sawdust 6% (bold symbols) and 15% (open symbols). Most of the
temperature readings were concentrated near the injection point
where combustion occurs. It was believed that in this section the
temperature gradient was the highest. Two thermocouples located
at the end of the freeboard completed the readout. Unfortunately,
the reactor isolation system did not allow temperature measure-
ments between 70 and 210 cm.
The results in Fig. 2 show that reactor temperature drops by
approximately 30 C when the biomass concentration changes
from 6% to 15%. This was expected given the lower HHV of sawdust
when compared to coal (see Table 2). Plots similar to Fig. 2 for rice
and coffee husk showed a similar trend in which reactors temper-
atures were lower as the percentage of biomass in the mixture in-
creased. The reduction in temperature due to the presence of a
higher biomass percentage was, however, considered minor and
allowed good furnace operation. For all the experiments, the max-
imum temperature was maintained below 1000 C to avoid
sintering.
3.2. Steam/fuel ratio
Fig. 3 explores the effect of changes in steam/fuel ratio with
constant air/fuel ratio. Fig. 3 shows that changes in steam concen-
tration affect the proportion of H
2
in the syngas. The reaction (4)
can be used for explaining the increase in H
2
as steam/blend ratio
changes while air/blend ratio remain constant. With reaction (4) it
will be obtained an increase in H
2
and CO production of the same
magnitude. However, due to the watergas reaction (6) the mon-
oxide participation to gas ow decreases and higher H
2
production
is achieved.
Here it is important to remark that for getting a syngas with
suitable gas composition based on H
2
and CO, the steam/blend ra-
tio must be increase depending on kind of biomass. Vg. for coffee
husk it is necessary less steam ow supply than sawdust and this
one need less than rice husk for producing a syngas with the same
proportion of H
2
and CO (see Fig. 3). We think that it is important
to explore this latter with more detail in future works. In the Fig. 3
there are no experiences made with rice husk, because those were
made with a different feeding point and so the experimental con-
ditions are different.
3.3. Effect of temperature on gasication mechanism
In the Fig. 4, information about the evolution of released gas and
bed temperature can be obtained. The Fig. 4 (a) shows that with 6%
coffee husk biomass in the feeding and for temperatures between
810 and 850 C, the shift watergas reaction (6) probably has a
strong inuence in the nal gas composition. With this reaction,
CO
2
is obtained, and the maximum amount obtained was at
820 C, between the studied temperatures interval. For higher tem-
peratures, the CO
2
decreases, and the reactions that make use of it
becomes more dominant, and probably the Boudouard reaction (3)
the most dominant. For temperatures above 850 C there is a slow
decreasing of CO
2
concentration, and an increase of COs. These re-
sults show that for high temperatures and with 6% of coffee husk,
the shift watergas reaction (6) can be less inuential than the
Boudouard (3) and the watergas (4) reactions.
Table 2
Others solids analysis.
Sample Others
HHV (kJ/
kg)
wet basis
Mean particle
size (mm)
Apparent density
(kg m
3
)
Real density
(kg m
3
)
Coal 20586 1.16 1000 1326.8
Rice
husk
13364 1.24 348.8 971.1
Sawdust 16215 1.62 395.3 864.4
Coffee
husk
16538 1.63 673.7 826.2
Table 3
Main gasication reactions.
Reaction N
o
Name
C O
2
() CO
2
(1) Oxidation
C 1=2O
2
() CO
(2) Partial oxidation
C CO
2
() CO H
2
(3) Boudouard
C H
2
O () 2CO
(4) Watergas
C 2H
2
() CH
4
(5) Methanation
CO H
2
O () CO
2
H
2
(6) Watergas shift
CH
4
H
2
O () CO 3H
2
(7) Steam reforming
Table 4
Typical results.
Coffee husk Sawdust Rice husk
6% 15% 6% 15% 6% 15%
Coal + Biomass (kg/h) 8.0 8.1 8.0 7.0 5.7 3.9
Air (kg/h) 18.0 18 20.2 18.4 10.8 7.2
Rac (kg/kg) 2.3 2.4 2.7 2.6 2.0 2.0
Steam (kg/h) 2.1 1.8 4.8 4.7 3.9 2.8
Rvc (kg/kg) 0.26 0.23 0.61 0.70 0.70 0.73
T
air
(C) 354 343 356 381 356 354
T
steam
(C) 348 350 369 385 347 352
T
bed
(C) 839 805 846 797 804 820
H
2
(% v/v dry) 14.0 10.0 10.7 12.0 11.4 14.0
CO
2
(% v/v dry) 8.0 7.0 10 8.4 9.3 10
CO (% v/v dry) 8.2 8.2 11.8 6.8 6.0 5.0
426 J.F. Vlez et al. / Fuel 88 (2009) 424430
The decreasing of H
2
concentration in the studied temperatures
interval, is probably caused by the (5) reaction. Unfortunately, the
CH
4
measurement was not possible, to corroborate this comment.
In the reaction (7), three molecules of H
2
are released, however, it
is not clear a substantial increasing of this, probably because high
H
2
concentrations improves the (4), (6) and (7) reversible reactions
up to an equilibrium.
In brief, the obtained results for determining the temperature
inuence in the coal co-gasication with 6% of coffee husk, shows
that all reactions from (1) to (7) can be done. The shift watergas
reaction is probably the most inuencing reaction for the 810
850 C temperature interval, with a tendency to increase the CO
concentration, while CO
2
released decrease. Even though this reac-
tion can be found in the 850900 C temperature interval, probably
in this interval, the inuence of the Bourdouard (3) and watergas
(4) reactions is higher. This hypothesis is according to the results
obtained by [21,22].
In the case of 15% coffee husk the temperature interval available
to study was closer, because this increasing of the coffee husk con-
centration induces a decreasing on the gasication temperature.
The bed temperature varies in accordance with the type and rate
of biomass used in the feeding, mainly because of the volatile mat-
ter inherent to any type of biomass. High volatile matter content
improves the release of combustible gases, which require a lower
process temperature. Because of this, it is observed that for the bio-
mass with a less content of volatile matter (rice husk), it is required
a higher temperature to obtain a good combustible gases produc-
tion, whereas that with the coffee husk, that has a higher volatile
matter content and less humidity content, the required tempera-
ture is lower. This make difcult the comparison between the
two compositions, however, it can be said that for the 15% coffee
husk concentration, the behavior is almost the same as with 6%
coffee husk concentration, namely, it is shown that for lower tem-
peratures, the shift watergas reaction (6), was probably one of the
most inuential reaction to obtain the nal gas composition, and
therefore, the yield composition obtained has few variations one
with respect to the other one, keeping an equilibrium between
them.
The evolution of released gas and bed temperature obtained for
the experiences with sawdust and rice husk, respectively is pre-
sented in the Fig 4b and c. It can be shown a similar behavior re-
spect to the decreasing of H
2
and increasing of CO concentrations
while increasing the temperature, in comparison with the 6% cof-
fee husk. However, for the two rice husk blends studied, there is
no a substantial difference in the temperature interval, because
of the change of the feeding point used for this blends (fed by grav-
ity). This induces the devolatilization before the biomass and coal
fall to the bed, caused by the hot gases that emerge from there
and because of the poor amount of char in the rice husk, and its
previous devolatilization, the char gasied at the bed is mainly
proceeded from the coal, provoking with that, no substantial
experimental differences, that are reected in similar gasication
temperature intervals to both carried experiences with this
biomass.
3.4. Ash sintering and agglomeration and tar deposition
One of the main problems detected during the experiments was
the ash agglomeration and sintering. Ash agglomeration causes
reactor shutdown due to uidization losses. This event was also
observed by other authors [20,2326]. Fluidization losses were ob-
served after 20 h of continuous operation. Ash sintering was evi-
denced by the presence of fused ashes around the
thermocouples, which affected temperature measurements. How-
ever, it is not possible to quantify the different agglomeration char-
acteristics of the biomasses used in this study, but in the carried
experiments, the evidence suggests that rice husk produced more
deposition than the other biomasses as was expected because of
its higher ash content, mostly composed of high quantities of
SiO
2
(96.26wt%), which has a linear inversely proportional depen-
dence respect to the melting point of the ashes. Higher quantities
of oxides in the ashes means a decreasing on the starting temper-
ature of the agglomeration or initial deformation of the ashes, in
accordance with the results presented in the literature [27,28]. In
addition, in the ashes analyzed in this study it was found com-
pounds like K
2
O (1.03wt%) and Na
2
O (0.22wt%), which produce a
decreasing on the fusion temperature of the ashes, because of their
near to the eutectic point of the binary diagram of these com-
pounds. The sawdust used in this study has a composition of min-
erals SiO
2
, K
2
O and Na
2
O of 31%, 7.1%, 2.0wt%, respectively.
Because of the minimum problems of sintering presented with
the coffee husk, no ash analysis was made.
Preliminary experiments at the Grounds Laboratory and at the
Materials Institute of the National University, carried with the dif-
ferent types of biomass used and with the agglomerated ashes in
the reactor, shows that between the agglomerated ashes and the
biomass ash, there is a difference indicating that there are metallic
compounds that agglomerates in higher proportions, being this
mineral matter in the biomass the one that accelerates the agglom-
eration process.
In the carried experiments by this study, temperatures above
1000 C were avoided in order to avoid the biomass ashes to reach
their melting point in accordance with the standard ASTM D 1857/
94 ash fusion test. The troubles found in this experimental stage,
respect to the ashes agglomeration and uidization loss were sim-
ilar to those reported in the literature [2328]. The reference [20]
comments and states that the standard ASTM D 1857/94 ash fusion
test is a poor indicator about the behavior of the ashes respect to
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
0 100 200 300 400
Reactor Height (cm)
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Sawdust 6%
Sawdust 15%
Fig. 2. Temperature prole along the reactor for 6% (bold symbols) and 15% (open symbols) sawdust blends. Rac = 2.8, Rvc = 0.27.
J.F. Vlez et al. / Fuel 88 (2009) 424430 427
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
16.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Rvc
D
r
y

g
a
s

c
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

(
%
v
/
v
)
H2
CO
CO2
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
16.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Rvc
D
r
y

g
a
s

c
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

(
%
v
/
v
)
H2
CO
CO2
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
16.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Rvc
D
r
y

g
a
s

c
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

(
%
v
/
v
)
H2
CO
CO2
a
b
c
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
16.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Rvc
D
r
y

g
a
s

c
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

(
%
v
/
v
)H2
CO
CO2
d
Fig. 3. Gas generated composition versus steam/blend ratio for different blends. (a), (b): Rac = 2.4; coffee husk 6% and 15%, respectively. (c), (d): Rac = 2.8; sawdust 6% and
15%, respectively.
428 J.F. Vlez et al. / Fuel 88 (2009) 424430
the uidized-bed reactors, showing that the ashes melting temper-
ature is lower than the reported by ASTM.
Tar accumulation caused clogging of the pipelines in the free
board. The production of tar and heavy hydrocarbons is another
problem traditionally associated to biomass gasication [15,8
14]. Tar accumulation in the pipelines can be reduced by maintain-
ing a temperature high enough that avoids tar condensation or by
increasing tar oxidation in the freeboard. Aznar et al. [5] have
reached reductions of up to 50% of tars produced during co-gasi-
cation by addition of secondary air to the freeboard zone.
3.5. Energy efciency
Energy hot efciency was calculated based on the ratio between
the energy of the fuel species (CO, H
2
) from the produced syngas
(LHV) along with heat-sensitive from gas efuents fromthe gasier
and the energy input from steam, hot air and the biomasscoal
mixture [29]. The value of the efciency were 61% for some cases;
this value is relatively high considering the relatively low temper-
ature (between 200 C and 300 C) at which the syngas left the
reactor. Energy cold efciency reaches values up to 57%. Syngas
LHV varied between 1.6 and 4.4 MJ m
3
. Main efciency losses
originate from fuel partial oxidation to generate the temperature
required for gasication and from heat losses through walls and
bare anges.
Fig. 5 shows the calculated energy hot efciency for the differ-
ent coal/biomass mixtures, where can see that if we have higher
percentage of coffee and rice husks in the mixture, we get a decre-
ment in process efciency values. However, when we used saw-
dust, we found a similar value of process efciency although its
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
770 790 810 830 850 870 890 910 930 950
Bed Temperature (C)
D
r
y

g
a
s

C
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

(
%
v
/
v
)
CO2
CO
H2
CO2
CO
H2
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
770 790 810 830 850 870 890 910 930 950
Bed Temperature (C)
D
r
y

g
a
s

C
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

(
%
v
/
v
)
CO2
CO
H2
CO2
CO
H2
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
770 800 830 860 890 920 950
Bed Temperature (C)
D
r
y

g
a
s

C
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

(
%
v
/
v
)
CO2
CO
H2
CO2
CO
H2
a
b
c
Fig. 4. Effects of bed temperature on gas composition for 6% (bold symbols) and 15% (open symbols). (a) coffee husk, (b) sawdust and (c) rice husk.
J.F. Vlez et al. / Fuel 88 (2009) 424430 429
process temperature was less than other one. We think that the
physical conditions for co-gasication of sawdust were better than
others one and it is recommendable explore those chemical and
physic characteristic inside sawdust that doing that the results
were different to other type of biomass.
4. Conclusions
Experiments in a uidized-bed pilot plant demonstrated that it
is possible to carry out co-gasication of coal with mixtures of up
to 15% sawdust, rice and coffee husks. Although the presence of
biomass decreases energy efciency, this reduction is minor and
should not overcome the benet of reduced CO
2
emissions ob-
tained by the use of biomass as renewable source.
The produced fuel gas was found to be rich in hydrogen (up to
15%). Other combustible gases present in the syngas are carbon
monoxide (11%), methane (CH
4
) and hydrocarbons (tars). A high-
er proportion of biomass in the fuel increased the content of hydro-
gen in the sample but decreased the energy efciency of the
process. The experiments showed ash agglomeration and tar depo-
sition as minor drawbacks of the gasication process.
Acknowledgements
Authors acknowledge the nancial support of COLCIENCIAS un-
der Research Contract No. 1118 06-17313. We would like also to
acknowledge all invaluable comments of Professor Alejandro Moli-
na O. From National University of Colombia and Mr. Juan David
Cuevas Guarnizo.
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0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Coffee Husk Rice Husk Sawdust
E
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
c
y

(
%
)
Biomass 6%
Biomass 15%
Fig. 5. Maximum energy efciency for different experiences.
430 J.F. Vlez et al. / Fuel 88 (2009) 424430