Straw Gasification in a Two-Stage Gasifier

Additive-prepared straw pellets were gasified in the 100 kW two-stage gasifier at The Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The fixed bed temperature range was 800-1000°C. In order to avoid bed sintering, as observed earlier with straw gasification - and to maintain a high fuel reactivity, a mixture of phosphorus acid, calcium hydroxide, molasses and water was mixed into the ground pellets. Following the gasifier was running continuously for more than 50 hours as planned. Several tar, gas and particle measurements were carried out during the test, and the ash residues were examined after the test. No agglomeration or sintering was observed in the ash residues. The tar content was measured both by solid phase amino adsorption (SPA) method and cold trapping (Petersen method). Both showed low tar contents (~42 mg/Nm3 without gas cleaning). The particle content was around 1000-2000 mg/Nm3, and the majority of particles were salts (KCl and NH4Cl ). The amount of carbon in the ashes decreased through the test from about 60% to below 20%.