Patent ID: 7803845

Claim:
A method for gasifying biomass, which comprises: A. introducing said biomass into a reactor, and subjecting said biomass to temperatures of between 600-1300° C. at a pressure range of 0.8-2 bar, while supplying substoichiometric quantities of oxygen to obtain a synthesis gas; B. cleaning the synthesis gas in order to remove grades of tar therefrom; wherein cleaning the synthesis gas comprises: (i) saturating or supersaturating the synthesis gas with a separately supplied oil; (ii) condensing said oil with a fraction of the tar to obtain a gas stream and a tar-laden oil; (iii) passing the gas stream through an absorption device while adding further oil in order to absorb the tar and obtain a cleaned synthesis gas and an oil tar mixture, such that absorption is effected in such a manner that water does not condense under prevailing conditions; (iv) discharging the cleaned gas; and (v) separating at least a fraction of the tar out of said further oil tar mixture in step B (iii).