Solar thermochemical conversion of carbonaceous materials into syngas by Co-Gasification

摘要

Transitioning from fossil fuel based energy sources to more viable and alternative renewable energy sources requires intermediary methods that bridge the gap between existing technology and newer innovative renewable technologies. The objective here is to provide for a more reliable power source that can extend its reach to even the remotest rural areas.This paper provides a numerical method that tests the possibility of coupling a solar energy heat source with a co-gasification process dependent on biomass and coal for producing syngas throughout all hours of the day. A hybrid reactor that is modeled by the Monte Carlo ray tracing method for its geometric and maximum temperature is obtained in the cavity. Numerous factors were accounted for that determined the performance of the reaction in the indirectly irradiated fluidized bed solar reactor. The co-gasification modeling calculation utilized 50% lignite coal and 50% olive pomace with oxygen and steam to estimate the gasification performance parameters.The co-gasification process, using solar energy as the heat source, had in fact shown to produce clean syngas. Oxygen and steam were mixed to ensure the continuous production of syngas, as oxygen was critical in enabling some of the feedstock to be combusted during the low/absence of solar energy. The stoichiometric equilibrium model was also used to estimate the gasification performance and the effect of the gasifying agent ratios. The results also indicate that the effect of variation of O-2: C ratio is an important factor that affects both the bed temperature and the carbon conversion, whilst the negative impact of combustion was apparent on the H-2:CO, cold gas ratio, solar-fuel efficiency, and CO2 production. Changing H2O:C ratio was less apparent but still significant in the co-gasification process. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.