Technical Challenges of Utilizing Biomass Gasification Gas for Power Generation: An Overview

Abstract

Biomass stores solar energy during its growth by photosynthesis reaction and releases the equivalent amount of energy during its thermochemical conversion. The storage energy in biomass can be effectively utilized for heat and power generation by gasification. However, the commercial application of biomass gasification technology, especially for power generation suffers from a number of technological challenges. In this review, the challenges related to the gasification of biomass to produce clean gas for internal combustion engines and gas turbines are highlighted. Gas cleaning is one of the most challenging issues related to the biomass gasification based power generation. Among the gas impurities, tar is the most problematic one which is difficult to remove to an acceptable range for internal combustion engine or turbine. For running engine or gas turbine for electricity generation, the gasification gas requires to have a specific gas composition with an acceptable range of impurities. A number of gas cleaning methods including physical filtration, thermal cracking and catalytic reforming of tar removal have been developed. However, the most efficient and popular one is yet to be developed for commercial purpose. Based on the literature, the efforts related to tar separation affect burnable gas composition and heating value, which are the most important terms define the overall efficiency of biomass gasification based power generation. In this review different gas cleaning methods will be summarized and highlighted how it affects the gas composition and cold gas efficiency.

Keywords: gasification gas, producer gas, gas cleaning, catalytic gas cleaning, cold gas efficiency