[Gasification] back to gasification

Florian Nagel flopana77 at gmail.com
Wed Jun 1 16:51:46 CDT 2011


Hi James

 

I cant comment on the cost of the methanation step but I can comment on your
idea regarding a methanation step as fuel upgrade in a gasification- and gas
engine-based power plant. I did my thesis together with Jan at PSI working
on the combination of high-temperature fuel cells with woody biomass
gasifiers: http://e-collection.library.ethz.ch/view/eth:41553 . Hi Jan, I m
still on that list as you see :D

 

Methanation is an exothermic process that yields the highest methane
concentration in the product gas when kept around 400C process temperature.
Hence, you ll first have to cool your syngas down to 400C. Depending on your
gasifier type and syngas composition, you might get into carbon deposition
problems (Boudouard reaction for example where 2 CO molecules decompose into
carbon and carbon dioxide). You can overcome these problems by injecting
steam into your syngas (which will cool it down at the same time..) which
you will also need to increase your hydrogen atom content in a way that
allows methanation. Then you can take it from there and produce methane.

 

Problem I see is that by introducing water into your fuel gas, you already
lower its heating value. This results in a lower combustion temperature in
your gas engine. Gas engines are limited by the Carnot efficiency rule that
clearly states that the efficiency of a combustion engine increases with the
difference between the temperature of the hot compressed combusted gas and
the temperature of the expanded exhaust gas. Hence, the efficiency of a
combustion engine running on humidized syngas should definitely be lower
than running on unhumidified syngas. Next problem is, during the methanation
you have to cool the reactor. Thus you are again reducing the energy content
of your syngas or by that time synthetic methane (relative to the energy
content of the initial feedstock). The energy you extract from the
methanation process is in form of low-temperature heat (400C) which you can
hardly use economically to produce electricity with a steam cycle. Once you
have your synthetic methane gas mixture, you ll have to reduce the high
water content of it to not run into above mentioned efficiency issues of the
combustion engine. This can only be done by cooling the gas close to ambient
temperature were the water simply condenses. Another point in the process
were you extract energy at very very low temperature level. I would consider
this energy as a complete loss. From there you can use the dried, cold
synthetic methane in your engine and produce electricity.

 

To put it in numbers: Good gasification-gas engine plants reach efficiencies
around 25 to 30% without bottoming-cycle (steam cycle to use exhaust heat).
The methanation process has an efficiency around 65%. Together with a very
high combustion engine efficiency of 42.5%, you end up with a maximum
efficiency of a gasification-methanation-gas engine scheme of around 27.5%.
However, with considerably higher equipment cost. I definitely recommend not
to use a methanation step as fuel upgrading step but to use the syngas
directly in your engine. In any case, the world totally changes if you aim
at using high-temperature fuel cells, gas turbines or if you want to make
the wood energy transportable and storable. The latter was the idea of the
PSI methanation project given Switzerlands dependence on foreign gas
imports.

 

Cheers

Florian 

 

From: gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Jim
Leach
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 15:51
To: 'Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification'
Subject: Re: [Gasification] back to gasification

 

Jan,

I am curious what method you selected for tar removal. Also, was the
methanation step expensive?  The methane would make a better engine fuel
than the H2 and CO but I am concerned about the cost.

 

Best Regards,

 

 

 

JAMES T. LEACH, P.E.

President

 

DANA TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

32242 Paseo Adelanto, Suite D

San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675

Ph 949-496-6516

Fx 949-496-8133

Mobile 949-933-6518

 

 

  _____  

From: gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Jan
Kopyscinski
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 1:13 PM
To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
Subject: Re: [Gasification] back to gasification

Hi Kevin,

I did my Phd thesis on this topic. You can find more information there:
http://e-collection.library.ethz.ch/view/eth:1059

or under www.bio-sng.com and www.biosng.com,
http://www.biofuelstp.eu/bio-sng.html and on other pages.

In  a nut shell the process consits of:
1) low temperature steam gasification
2) gas cleaning (ash, tar, H2S, ...)
3) methanation = conversion of the syngas into methan (catalytic process,
mostly Nickelcatalyst)
 CO + 3 H2 --> CH4 + H2O
 CO + H2O --> H2 + CO2

If you use a different catalyst you can go for higher hydrocarbon such as
Fischer Tropsch Diesel, or Methanol, ....

4) Fuel upgrading = removal of H2O, CO2

We at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland (http://tpe.web.psi.ch/)
investigated this process from wood to BioSNG in two scales for more than
1000h.

Regards

Jan

- 
Dr. sc. Jan Kopyscinski
Postdoctoral fellow
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Schulich School of Engineering
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, Alberta, Canada  T2N 1N4
 
Email: jan.kopyscinski at ucalgary.ca
Phone: 001 403 2109575 







  _____  

Von: Kevin <kchisholm at ca.inter.net>
Gesendet: May 31, 2011 5:02:24 PM
An: "Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification"
<gasification at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Betreff: Re: [Gasification] back to gasification

Dear Jan

 

Very interesting!!

 

What steam temperature and pressure is required to gasify wood?

 

Once one has such gas, what sort processing is required to convert it to
CH4? (That is, what temperatures, pressures, catalysts, etc)

 

Is there any way this can be done on a small scale?

 

Is there any way this process can be modified to produce methanol on a small
scale? If so, this would be awesome... it would then yield a very portable
liquid fuel.

 

Thanks!

 

Kevin

----- Original Message -----

From: Jan Kopyscinski <mailto:jan.kopy at web.de> 

To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
<mailto:gasification at lists.bioenergylists.org> 

Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 11:30 AM

Subject: Re: [Gasification] back to gasification

 


Hi,

First of all, there are at least two different types of biofuel:
First Generation:  agricultural feedstock, which is converted by means of
biochemical processes (i.e., digestion) --> Biogas
Second Generation: woody biomass that is converted via thermochemical
converiosn into a producer or so-calles syngas (Gasification).
Thus, if your goal is to produce Methan or Natural Gas substite for a gas
engine or transportation fuel you have different options. But you need to
know what is your feedstock (dry , wet, digestable or not digestable such as
wood):
If you have a rather dry feedstock you can go for steam gasifiaction (no
air, means no Nitrogen). The produced syngas you can catalytilcally convert
to CH4, CO2 and H2O. Prior to the methanation process you need to remove the
sulphur since it is deactivating your catalyts. H2O and CO2 can then be
removed. This process has been investiaget by the Paul Scherrer Institiute
in Switzerland (www.psi.ch and www.bio-sng.com).
Removal of nitrogen is too expensive, thus you should avoid feeding it into
your process. 2 vol% to max 5vol% N2 in the methan rich gas is acceptable.

Regards,

Jan


  _____  


Von: "Pannirselvam P.V" <pannirbr at gmail.com>
Gesendet: May 31, 2011 12:46:54 PM
An: "Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification"
<gasification at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Betreff: Re: [Gasification] back to gasification

Dear A.D Karve  

 

      One of the project we have been studying  is based on the
IGT,Instuite  Gas technology patented process  called Biotherm , in which
the  wood  gas or syngqs  can be passed into the biodigestor, in which  CO
and  Hydrogen can  be converted into  methane ; the  NOX .COX, SOX removed
via simple  known wet or  dry process using activated charcoal and  lime ;
the methane is then compressed.The N  can be removed  as ammonia,as this can
be very toxic to bio methane bacteria; Syngas obtained via pyrogas can
reduce this N2 problem and complexity.Thus pyrogas technology  has more
potential than  wood gas technology

 

  we are studying how to make this complex process into simple innovative
process to  make possible charcoal and  methane economy which is practiced
in the developed country  in big scale  can be  made possible in developing
village level technology too in small scale ,The project is yet in design
stage to reduce CO2 to use as liquid  fertilizer too increasing the
calorific valued the compressed biogas.

 

Yours truely

Pannirselvam

 

 

On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 11:01 PM, Anand Karve <adkarve at gmail.com> wrote:

Dear List,
We are already using, in India, wood gas made from agricultural waste
to run stationary internal combustion engines. But, for using it as
automobile fuel, it would have to be filled into cylinders, for which
the nitrogen in the wood gas would have to be removed in order to
reduce its bulk and to increase its calorfiic value. Does anybody have
a suggestion as to how this can be achieved?
Yours
A.D.Karve

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CT – Centro de Tecnologia / UFRN, Lagoa Nova – Natal/RN
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