Doctoral Dissertations

Author

Jia Yu

Keywords and Phrases

Bioenergy; Biomass; Gasification

Abstract

"Bioenergy has been utilized for domestic purposes since pre-recorded history and it catches the highlight in the recent decades because it naturally benefits the world climate and energy security. Gasification is one of the key technologies to efficiently and economically convert biomass into syngas and further into biofuels. Despite these outstanding advantages, biomass gasification suffers from the formation of unfavorable byproduct tar and the consequential tar elimination. Moreover, the collected tar is toxic and thus requires storage and strict deposit method to avoid environmental pollution.

To understand the mechanisms of biomass gasification and tar production, simulations with Aspen Plus were conducted for both downdraft and updraft gasifiers, which are presented in the Paper I and II, respectively. The kinetic models are implanted with reaction kinetics to ensure their ability to approximate the tar production, which are superior to the widely used Gibbs Energy Minimization model for predicting syngas compositions. Paper III focuses on the investigation of the impact of tar recycling on syngas compositions under various operating conditions including different reactor scales (4'', 8'', 12''), different biomass feedstocks (pellets, picks, and flakes) and different equivalence ratios (0.15, 0.20, 0.25)."--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Smith, Joseph D.

Committee Member(s)

Al-Dahhan, Muthanna H.
Ludlow, Douglas K.
Luks, Christi Patton
Gelles, Gregory M.

Department(s)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering

Sponsor(s)

Missouri University of Science and Technology. Wayne and Gayle Laufer Endowment

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2018

Journal article titles appearing in thesis/dissertation

  • Validation and application of a kinetic model for biomass gasification simulation and optimization in updraft gasifiers
  • Kinetic modeling and simulation of biomass gasification in downdraft fixed bed gasifiers
  • Experimental investigation of tar recycling in pilot-scale biomass gasifiers: Prospects, operating procedures, process variations and controls

Pagination

xii, 143 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references.

Rights

© 2018 Jia Yu, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11328

Electronic OCLC #

1041858771

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