Biomass Gasification for Power Production and Liquid Fuels
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Renewal power and fuels are becoming increasingly important in the energy requirements of California, particularly for the reduction of green house gases (GHG) and the reduction in the importation of fossil fuels. California has large supplies of renewable biomass (agricultural, forest, urban green, municipal solid, etc.) that are underdeveloped. The production of renewable energy from waste biomass using thermochemical conversion (gasification) to produce syngas (H2 and CO) can be used for the production of power and liquid fuels. Thermochemical conversion technology for syngas production has been developed successfully for non-renewal feedstocks (natural gas, coal, etc.) for power production and liquid fuel using classical Fischer-Tropsch catalysts, but has not been developed for renewablel biomass feedstock. The long term objective of the research is to provide advanced thermochemical processes for the conversion of biomass to syngas for both the production of renewable power and transportation fuels that are economically viable and maximize the green house gas reduction benefits. Four specific research areas are addressed in this proposal: (1) System modeling of the thermochemical conversion of biomass to syngas for power and liquid fuels production. The system modeling will be based on data from biomass (wood waste, agricultural waste, urban waste, etc.) gasification characterization experiments at both the laboratory scale at UC Davis and at pilot scale (5 tons/day) at the West Biofuels’ Woodland Biomass Research Center near UC Davis. These experiments will provide performance data for energy/material balance analysis and process design studies for syngas production for power and liquid transportation fuel synthesis, (2) Development of advanced computation fluid dynamic methods for simulating the fluidized-bed gasification of biomass to include three-dimensional, unsteady, multi-fluid components (biomass, inorganic bed material, and gases), and chemical kinetics for detailed reactor design. This complexity is necessary for the development of engineering design models for scaling the gasification process from pilot to commercial scale, (3) Advanced methods for improving the production of clean high quality syngas from biomass gasification to include the use of partial oxidation (POX), in-situ catalytic bed material, and low-cost regenerative catalysts for tar reforming and adjusting the H2/CO ratio of the syngas for liquid fuels production will be investigated at both the laboratory and pilot scale, and (4) Emissions reduction of NOx, CO, and unburned hydrocarbons from syngas power production for a range of biomass feedstock to include wood waste, agricultural, and urban green waste. Emission control methods include: three-way catalyst automotive with new catalyst formulations, CO oxidation catalyst system, and selective catalytic reduction using urea injection similar to recent advances in NOx control for diesel engines.