Many biomass materials, with widely differing costs and environmental footprints, have been proposed as feedstocks for gasification processes. But it is unclear how the chemical composition of different biomass feedstocks impacts the composition of syngas. In order to characterize the impact of biomass source (loblolly pine, eucalyptus, poplar and switchgrass) and operating parameters on gasification products, Py-MBMS, combined with multivariate analysis tools, was used to study the chemical composition of the syngas. As expected for temperatures between 400oC and 650oC there were significant differences in the composition gas and vapors for the different biomass feedstocks. Between 650oC and 900oC differences between the biomass feedstocks were reduced, but there were still important differences in the syngas composition. The time-resolved vapor profiles were studied using Multivariate Curve Resolution (MCR) techniques. There were distinct differences in the time-resolved profiles based on the source of biomass feedstock and the initial reaction temperature.

Evaluation of the effects of biomass feedstocks on syngas composition and tars by using pyrolysis molecular beam mass spectrometry (Py-MBMS)

245th National Meeting (2013)

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