Gasification Reactor
The gasification reactor is a laboratory-scale fluidized bed reaction system capable of gasifying a variety of traditional fossil fuels as well as opportunity/ biomass fuels. The inside diameter of the fluidized bed reactor is 62.5mm and it has a 45°cone distributor with a 16mm center jet nozzle. The reactor is externally heated up to temperatures of 1200°C. Typically sand is used as a bed material. Currently about 60g feedstock (fuel plus sand) is fed into the top of the reactor. A variety of gases and steam can be introduced into the bottom of the reactor as the fluidizing agent. Past gasification studies have utilized steam mixed with nitrogen. A HPLC pump is used to generate a water flow rate of 1.5mL/min that is passed through a furnace to generate steam. The steam is mixed with a 0.5mL flow rate of nitrogen and fed into the reactor through a distributor. The steam and nitrogen flow rates are 1.91L/min and 1.64lL/min, respectively. The remaining nitrogen, (~1.14L/min) is fed into the reactor through the center jet nozzle. At these flow rates the superficial gas velocity though the reactor is approximately 3 ft/sec at 950°C. The produced gas is continuously analyzed using an Agilent Micro 3000 GC. The products of gasification that are analyzed include H2, CO, CO2, and C1-C3 hydrocarbons. Volumetric gas flow rates are also measured during testing. Two thermocouples are located in the reactor to monitor bed and gas temperature and recorded via LabView software. To date the following fuels have been tested in the gasification reactor: various woods, meat and bone meal, blood meal, paper sludge, coal, poultry pellets and cow tissue.