Abstract:
Effect of devolatilization temperature of biomass on tar reduction in steam gasification with char from coal/biomass blend was studied in this research. The steam gasification was conducted in a two-stage fixed bed reactor. The influence of devolatilization temperature in range of 600 to 800 °C was investigated on tar gasification with steam at 800 °C. Rice straw and leucaena wood were used in this work. Char as a catalyst was produced by pyrolysis at 600 °C. The gas products and tar were analyzed by using gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively. The results indicated that at devolatilization temperature of 800 °C, all prepared chars had a catalytic effect on tar cracking in steam gasification. Tar can be decomposed on the surface of char resulting in the higher carbon conversion into gas production. In addition, the difference in devolatilization temperature affected on tar compositions from biomass as well as tar conversion. Devolatilization at 700 °C give higher tar conversion than devolatilization at 800 °C. It was attributable to the naphthalene which was observed as a major composition in tar from 800 °C. The naphthalene is a high stable aromatic compound and could be difficult to decompose on the char surface. Also, the physical and chemical properties of char (e.g. surface area, pore volume, mineral) influenced on the catalytic role in the tar cracking. Moreover, the compositions of tar were not significantly different comparing between rice straw and leucaena wood. Furthermore, this work revealed that the all prepared char can effectively decompose the oxygenated-single aromatic tar rather than any other compounds in tar. Therefore, it can be concluded that the composition in tar from pyrolyzed biomass has a significant effect on the catalyst performance in tar reduction.