Biomass-to-Electricity: Pilot Scale Testing of Baseload Compared With Flexible Power: Shockwave Gasification Enables Biomass Conversion Into Renewable Gases

Taylor Energy evaluated three pathways to convert low-cost, woody biomass as a renewable energy feedstock into flexible electricity generation. The goals were to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local criteria pollutants and to improve energy reliability by diverting significant volumes of waste biomass from landfill while lowering energy bills. The research team identified the potential for use of the existing natural gas pipeline distribution system as a near-term storage opportunity, and the conversion of woody biomass into hydrogen or methane as the best use of thermo-catalytic gasification technology for flexible electric power generation. 

Taylor Energy achieved the project objectives of converting woody biomass into syngas products suitable for energy recovery, storage, and subsequent use for flexible electric power generation, employing high-purity renewable gases such as hydrogen and carbon monoxide intended for injection into a gas distribution system. Woody biomass was converted into product gases at a feed rate of 180 pounds per hour, typically sustaining operation for 6 to 10 hours during test campaigns and completing 300 hours of operation in an air-blown gasification mode. Air-blown biomass gasification resulted in a combined hydrogen and carbon monoxide content ranging from 18 to 36 percent by volume, with nitrogen content as the major diluent ranging from 40 to 45 percent by volume. The gasification process employed a jet-spouted bed for feed comminution, drying, and devolatilization, followed by an entrainedflow thermo-catalytic conversion section where pyrolysis tar-vapors were cracked into lowmolecular weight gases, carbon-char, and mineral ash. A novel pulse-detonation power system generated supersonic shockwaves, used to intensify the gasification process by micronizing biomass solids and increasing gas/solids mixing, resulting in increased conversion efficiency of feedstock to renewable fuel.